The Crimson Guardian
by Sominum
Summary: Ash Ketchum, a boy with a tremendous amount of intellect eventually leaves on a journey with his starter, Charmander by his side. He will travel around the world and along the way will catch many new pokemon, grow strong, unveil secrets long since hidden and forgotten. Rayshipping - Ash x Cynthia. Very Smart/Mature/Aura Guardian Ash. Mix between Anime and Games
1. Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

**Chapter 1: The Journey Begins**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! This story is for entertainment purposes and in no way am I trying to claim that I own Pokémon.**

 **Pairing: Ash x Cynthia**

 **AUTHOR NOTES!**

 **Hello everyone and welcome to my Pokémon fanfiction story!**

 **The main reason behind me writing this story is because I just love the Ash x Cynthia pairing and would like to show Ash going on a journey where he actually ages, is not extremely stupid and his Pokémon do not reset in skill and strength in the beginning of every region. And his Pokémon will evolve! Well…except for Pikachu.**

 **This story will contain elements from both the anime and the cannon. The main thing being that TM's can be bought from stores as I don't know how else I can make it possible for Pokémon to learn very particular moves that they don't learn through leveling up. Note that there will be no more elements from the game. Just the TM. While there will be items like potions, revives, and what not, they will only be used outside of battle!**

 **Also, Ash will be catching quite a few Pokémon and his Pokémon line up will be different when compared to the anime as I need to be able to show Ash being able to equally rotate through his Pokémon, so they all get some screen time so while there will be quite a lot it will not go beyond 50 Pokémon.**

 **Note he will not be getting a legendary. He will become close friends with all of the other legendary Pokémon and gain their trust, enabling him to call them in times of need, but he will not catch any. Plus, there will be no chosen one cliché which I have seen is done thousands of times as I feel its too overdone. And I want to be able to show Ash grow into a strong trainer over time while not having given so much importance to him because he's fated to save the world.**

 **There will be a deep plot to this story however and it will be slowly revealed which will hopefully keep you all on the edge of your seats.**

 **The only special thing about Ash in this story will be his intellect which will be higher then normal.**

 **NOTE: Ash will be an aura guardian in this story if you can't tell by the title. But he will not be supremely overpowered and I will try my best to explain how aura works. I found a wiki online explaining aura and I will be explaining it based on that information. Ash will slowly grow stronger as time goes on and he will occasionally use these powers to fight evil and what not but he will not be very strong early on. His powers will be very simple and easy to understand and he will eventually, after a while become strong but never extremely powerful or godlike.**

 **While this story will be somewhat light-hearted there will be some dark scenes (not overly so) which I feel are necessary for the story. It won't be anything so bad that it gives you disturbing images nor will it be anything over T so yeah. By the way…**

 **This story is rated T!**

 **Well that's all I had to say. Enjoy the story!**

* * *

A nice cool crisp breeze waved through the air, caressing the body of a six-year old boy named Ashura Satoshi Ketchum, laying peacefully on a comfortable folding bed. Ashura, or as his mom calls him Ash, wore a simple white t-shirt with a red Poké Ball in the middle, knee-length black shorts and simple blue flip-flops. He had a cute face, raven-black hair and the strangest yet alluring and captivating eyes with crimson red irises

Ash let loose a sigh as he gazed at the shining full moon and glittering white stars that lit up the entire night sky, making for a breath-taking scene. His eyes, went through every single detail of the sky, admiring the beauty and his eyes showing maturity and understanding well beyond his years.

Unknown to him, his mother, Delia Satoshi Ketchum, had been watching him from the wooden porch behind him. Delia is an auburn-haired woman with auburn colored eyes, a beautiful face and a slim yet curvaceous figure. She currently had a dark purple night gown on which waved with the cool crisp breeze of the night.

She gave a sad smile as she looked at her baby boy who was lost in the captivating scenery of the night sky. Seeing him like this, showing maturity and such content brought up some bad memories.

The day her husband gave his life so that she and their child that she had been carrying in her womb could live. It was that very same day when she lost her husband did a small accident happen in which she had tripped, causing her six-month pregnant womb to hit a tree root on the ground. She was lucky in that she didn't get a miscarriage as she had managed to break her fall enough with her hands but it still ended up causing damage to Ash's head. But rather then having a negative effect, this had caused a positive effect as it had amplified Ash's ability to process information to super human levels. However, this gift had not come with consequences as he not only had a very reclusive character but his body had been far weaker compared to other children when he was a baby. The doctors had said that his entire body was physically weak and would take years for him to properly recover. This had shown evidence when Ash had learned to walk at the age of three and a half where as normal kids learn around their first birthday.

As time went on, he slowly showed improvement in his physical capabilities and at this point, his body was as physically strong as any normal six-year old kid. This had been astounding to say the least given that it should have taken twice as long it had for him to recover to that state of physical fitness but Delia couldn't have been happier.

Although, it did hurt her heart to not be able to see the innocence in her little boy's eyes like she saw in many of the other kids in their home town of Pallet. In addition, his reclusive nature prevented him from making any friends with her being the only person he felt truly comfortable around to speak his mind. Despite this, she tried her best to help in recover and be open to people but she found that it was much harder then she thought it would be.

It also prevented him from starting school hence why she had taught him herself at home despite it being difficult due to her need to get a job since her bank funds had been running low. But Professor Oak had later discovered that her late husband had a bank load of money stashed away in a secret account in case of an emergency. This had helped her tremendously in raising Ash and with Professor Oak's help as well as reassurance that her past job as a researcher and his assistant was always open for her.

It was during this period of time when she had taught Ash, did she found out that he loved Pokémon. He was extremely comfortable being around them and hence, she let him play with her Pokémon from her days as a coordinator, before she had retired and became a researcher. It warmed her heart when she saw him acting like a child when he was around her Eevee and all of their evolved forms.

She was broken out of her thoughts when she heard Ash's voice enter her ears. "Mom. Why don't you come down here?"

She saw him patting to the folding bed beside him, laying in front of the porch on the grassy field of their humungous backyard. "Okay." Walking down the stairs of the wooden porch, she made her way to the bed and sat down on it and looked at Ash who had turned his face to look at her.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" asked Ash as he looked at the moon and stars again.

"It sure is." Said Delia as she looked at the sky and then back at Ash. He looked so much like his father it was uncanny. Especially with his unique and alluring crimson red eyes. She knew that despite everything, he would grow up to be a wonderful man. "Shouldn't you be preparing to head to bed Ash?"

"I know. I just wanted to see this." Said Ash with a content sigh. A comfortable silence then enveloped the two for a short while before Ash turned his face to look at his mom. He got up from the bed and sat on its side facing towards her. "Hey mom…can I ask you something?"

Delia gave him a motherly smile that radiated warmth and comfort that only a mother would be capable of giving. "You can ask me anything Ash."

"Can I…Can you teach me more about Pokémon?" Delia raised a confused eyebrow at him so he continued to explain, not giving her a chance to say anything. "Well…on T.V I saw Professor Oak talk about how he's going to be teaching kids from the local school here about Pokémon at his lab tomorrow…and I like playing with Pokémon a lot…so I was wondering since you used to work at his lab…can you teach me about them?"

Delia had wide-eyes for a moment before giving a warming smile but internally frowned. Normal six-year old kids should have been asking for toys to play with but here her son was, asking for her to teach him about Pokémon. While it was saddening to see that the person that was her whole world now couldn't have a normal childhood, she loved him regardless and nothing would ever change that.

So, she got off the bed and knelt down in front of Ash and cupped his cheeks before placing a kiss on his forehead. "Of course, Ash. I'll take you to the lab tomorrow and we can meet Professor Oak. I'll ask him if he can lend some books and I can help teach you. And don't worry, Professor Oak is a very nice and kind man." Delia added at the end since she felt Ash tense up at the prospect of meeting someone. He was not a people's person at all but maybe this could be a step forward in helping him open up a bit more if she could get him to be comfortable around Professor Oak.

As far as teaching him went…well considering how he had managed to learn how to read and write English extremely well in over a month with the aid of some books and her knowledge, she knew he would be able to learn about Pokémon faster then anyone else.

"Now, it's time for you to get some sleep young man. It's getting late and we have a big day tomorrow." Delia said as she got up and Ash followed before she held onto her boy's hand and led him back into their average sized home.

* * *

 **The next morning**

* * *

*SQUAK*

*SQUAK*

*SQUAK*

An annoying sound rang throughout Ash's room causing said person to shoot out his hands from under the covers on his bed and smack the top part of the circular shaped alarm, turning it off. Ash got up from his bed, causing the Poké Ball pictured blue cover to slide down him as he stretched his body.

Soon after he looked out the window and saw that the sun was high in the sky, bathing the beautiful green landscape in its warm rays. He sighed with content before turning to look at his clock/alarm and saw that it was 10:30 which was when his mom told him to wake up since the children of the local school will be gone from the Professor's lab by 12:00.

He also saw that on the wooden chair in front of his near empty table, there were a pair of shorts and pants laid out for him so he grabbed them and walked out of his small room, making his way right and entering through the next door, into the bathroom.

Going through his morning rituals of brushing, flossing, mouth washing, waste disposal, shower and then wearing his clothes, he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Ash then walked towards the stairs a few feet to his left and walked down them leading him to a small area where the door to their home was in front of him with the living room to the left and the kitchen to the right. He made his way to the kitchen where he smelled a delightful aroma permeating through the air which he instantly recognized as his favourite food of his mom's world-famous omelettes and bacon.

When he walked in, he saw his mom in a dark purple calf length skirt and a blue sleeved blouse with a white apron on top. She just finished cooking the last few strips of bacon and placed them on a large plate which had a ton of them.

"Good morning mom!" greeted Ash as he made his way through the marble floored kitchen and sat on the chair around the mahogany wooden dining table a few meters away from the kitchen counter, near the glass doors that led to the porch and backyard.

"Good morning Ash!" Delia greeted back as she untied her apron, hanging it on a nearby hanger before bringing the plates of omelettes and bacon, along with some toasted bread and glasses filled with orange juice.

Ash looked at the food, drooling as the delightful aroma tingled his nose before he looked beside him, noticing Eevee, Jolteon, Flareon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, Espeon, Glaceon, Leafeon and Sylveon eating Pokémon food from their respective bowls, devouring it as if it was heaven's gift to earth. Not really surprising given how his mom's cooking in terms of both Pokémon food and normal human food, surpassed world class chefs and breeders.

Delia then brought two empty plates and set one in front of Ash before placing one beside him and took her seat on a chair right next to his. "So, are you excited for today?"

Ash nodded as he filled his plate and started chowing down on his food. "I can't wait mom!"

"No eating while your mouth is full!" Delia scolded although the playfulness and joyful tone that was used, negated any effect of the words as Ash continued to chow down like no tomorrow, showing very little table manners.

The woman sighed happily at her son's bad eating habits, remembering some good times with his father. It was clear where his table manners…or lack thereof came from. Regardless, she began to eat herself and decided to keep the conversation going. "So, are you excited to meet many new Pokémon?"

Ash nodded his head enthusiastically, one of the rare times he truly acted like a child. "Pokémon are awesome!"

Delia giggled and reached out to ruffle his hair receiving no protest from Ash who was far too focused on devouring his breakfast like a blackhole, taking blissful delight on how they flooded his mouth with numerous delicious flavours.

"Any new Pokémon in particular you want to meet?"

"Nope. Any and all Pokémon are awesome!" exclaimed Ash.

Delia smiled at her son before the two went back to eating, engaging in conversations often about how the day will go and what Ash wanted to learn.

* * *

Delia just closed the door to her house behind her, before taking Ash's hand who had been standing right beside her, and started walking on the stone pathway that led to the fence gates of her home. She opened them before both mother and son walked through and made their way down the road towards Professor Oak's laboratory that sat atop a grassy hill.

The lab was not that large but still very big with its semi-circular shaped red roof, with numerous shining windows on its yellow walls, and a large windmill behind the building. Ash looked around with a bright smile with his mouth slightly agape as he gazed around at the Pidgeys flying over head, Bellsprouts walking on the grassy field and the amazing and beautiful scenery of mother nature with the clear blue sky and grassy field with trees in the distance.

Delia who was also taking in the scenery and the wonderful smile on her son's face was internally hoping Ash would not be too uncomfortable around Professor Oak. He has had a few glimpses of the man when he had stopped by their home to check up on them. Plus, it was good that their home was close to the lab, a bit away from the cluster of houses so they did not meet any people as they walked by.

Soon enough they had begun to climb the stairs that led up the hill towards the lab and eventually had made it. Ash was internally nervous about meeting Professor Oak despite having seen him in their home on several occasions and he seemed like a very kind man. He hoped he was willing to teach him about Pokémon as he really wanted to learn more about these amazing creatures.

He was broken out of his thoughts when the…ironically oak wooden door opened courtesy of Delia having rung the bell twice. Standing in front of them was a grey-haired man with black eyes and a few wrinkles on his face. He wore brown pants, a knee-length white lab-coat and a red shirt underneath.

"Oh, hello Delia!" Professor Oak greeted with a smile, having been expected them seeing as how she had called him early this morning.

"Hi Professor Oak. Thank you for this." She replied with a small nod.

"No thanks necessary Delia. You are like my daughter and I'm more then happy to help you." Oak said before he turned his attention to Ash who shied away bit due to being in someone else's presence. "Hello Ash my-boy. Do you remember me?" Said Oak with a smile as he extended his hand for a handshake.

Ash nodded his head a bit and extended his own hand, before engaging in a handshake with the old man mainly because the Oak had smiled in such a friendly way and he had met him in the past despite their interaction never having gone beyond a few words. "Hi."

Oak hid his surprise well upon seeing Ash shake his hand and respond to his greeting. He then motioned them to come in which they promptly did and Oak closed the door behind them. Oak then started walking a bit in front of them and spoke. "So, Ash, do you want to go to the Corral to meet lots of new Pokémon?"

He nodded with enthusiasm as his excitement overcame his nervousness of being around Professor Oak although he stayed close to his mom, when he saw a couple scientists in the rooms they passed by.

"So, you want to learn about Pokémon Ash?" Asked Professor Oak, since Delia had briefly mentioned something about that before.

"Yes." Ash replied as the trio reached a rather large living room with a sofa set consisting of one, two and three seat sofas with a large mahogany square-shaped table in the middle along with some average decorations of stands with flowers or pictures on them and a shelf with books at the side.

Oak slid opened the glass doors at the end of the room, allowing Delia and Ash to pass through and enter the vast Corral of his laboratory. The Corral was huge and since this was Ash's first time seeing it, he was astounded by all the various Pokémon he saw running in all sorts of different environments.

There was a lake in the distance with water type Pokémon swimming about. The sky was filled with flying types soaring through the air while many other types must have been in the distant forest and mountain while the clearing was filled with many different types.

"Wow." Ash muttered in shock and awe.

"It sure is." Muttered Oak before he pointed towards a large light-orange colored draconian Pokémon. It had two long antennas coming from his head with a small horn protruding from in between those antennas. The Pokémon had a striated under-belly that went to the tip of its thick long tail, along with triple clawed, thick arms and legs, and small wings. "Why don't you go play with my Dragonite over there. Don't worry, he's very nice and friendly."

Ash didn't even hear the last part of Oak's statement as he ran towards the Dragonite and immediately began interacting with it before he started petting his head when the Dragon Pokémon allowed him to do so.

Delia did not protest at all since she had known that Dragonite for a long time and he was a fairly old Pokémon who had the biggest heart she had ever seen. It was also heart-warming to see her normally serious son acting like a child at a toy store around Pokémon, especially ones he has never seen before.

"That boy really loves Pokémon doesn't he. Just like his father…" Oak said before his widened in realization of what came out of his mouth and he looked over to Delia who had a sad look on her face. "I'm sorry Delia, I…"

"No, its ok. Your right though. He's so much like Richard." She said as she remembered her husband. A rugged handsome man with unkempt, shoulder-length black hair, a thin triple claw mark scar across his face and his beautiful crimson red eyes, flashed in her mind.

A silence enveloped the group, uncomfortable for the Professor, while Delia just kept gazing at the laughing Ash as memories of her late husband flashed through her head.

It was a short while later did Delia break the silence, much to the Professor's relief. "You know, he asked me last night if I could teach him about Pokémon after he saw you on T.V. But I can only teach him so much so I was wondering if you would be willing to teach him. He's not that comfortable around people so I can't exactly put Ash in a school. I know it's a lot to ask but…"

"I would be happy to teach Ash." Oak interrupted. "I can tell he is a smart kid and maybe being around lots of Pokémon and me will help him open up more."

"Thank you, Professor." Said Delia with a thankful smile.

"My pleasure. Why don't you start working at the lab again since if Ash will be learning here, having you around will make it easier for him. Plus, you won't have to worry about him everyday." Oak suggested.

"I…I think I will Professor."

The two then continued to gaze having fun with the Dragonite with his rare happy and child like smile on face.

* * *

Later that day, Ash was sitting on the two-seat sofa beside his mom with Professor Oak sitting in front of them on the three-seat sofa. They had just finished explaining that Ash would now be learning directly under Professor Oak and that Delia would now be working here again.

Ash could not have been happier to not only get his desire to learn about Pokémon but his mom would be working here as well. He also gave a very mature "Thank you." To Professor Oak with a bow of his head somewhat surprising the Kanto Professor.

After their conversation ended, a childlike voice with an obnoxious undertone was heard by the three. "Hey Gramps, can I see that awesome Machamp of yours again?"

The three turned their heads towards the hall leading to the living room and saw a boy, the same age as Ash, walk into the room. He had brown hair, black eyes and wore a blue shirt and black knee-length shorts. Setting his backpack next to the sofa Oak was sitting on, the boy looked at the two people in the room who he did not recognize.

"Who are they gramps?" asked the boy.

"Gary my-boy. I would like you to meet Delia and her son Ash. Delia, Ash this is my grandson Gary." Oak introduced.

"Hello Gary." Delia greeted while Ash simply stayed quiet, briefly glancing at Gary before turning his attention towards the glass doors that led to the Corral, his nervousness of being around others kicking in again.

"Hi." Gary greeted back a bit miffed at Ash ignoring him.

Delia nudged Ash a bit to greet him but he did not listen making her sigh but she was still glad he was somewhat comfortable around the professor.

"Ash, will be studying here from now on, under me so I'm sure you and him will become great friends." Oak said receiving a surprised look from Gary.

"What! He will be studying under you?!" exclaimed Gary in surprise with jealousy being evident in his tone. "I want to study under you too!"

"Gary you're already going to school and I can teach you when you come to the lab. Ash here is not comfortable around others which is why I am teaching him privately. Whenever your done school you can come over here and I will teach you and Ash together ." Explained the Professor to which Gary nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Hey do you want to go meet some Pokémon?" asked Gary as he stepped towards Ash.

Ash turned his head towards Gary a bit surprised and intrigued by his words since he was getting anxious to get back out to the Corral and meet more Pokémon. "Ok." He cautiously replied after a short moment.

"Great! Let's go!" said Gary as he ran towards the glass doors and opened them before heading into the Corral with Ash following more slowly after he received a nod from Delia,

"It seems like they will be great friends." Said Oak receiving a nod from Delia.

They then began to engage in a conversation about how they planned on teaching Ash and Professor Oak grew more intrigued when he learned how easily Ash was able to learn to read and write English to such a great extent. The future will be interesting.

* * *

 **3 years later**

* * *

Within the span of three years, so many things had happened that had left Delia, Professor Oak and everyone else in the lab in shock.

After Ash had begun learning under Professor Oak and Delia began working in the lab, they first decided to teach him the basics of Pokémon such as their typing and small details about them. They had been surprised when Ash had literally devoured through the two books they had selected within three days along with several other books on more advanced details of Pokémon such as the various physiologies and environments different types like to live in.

It was because of this, Professor Oak decided to do a small test on Ash consisting of briefly showing Ash images for a couple of seconds and then asking him various questions on key details in the picture that you would have to look at carefully to notice. It was from this test that Professor Oak determined that Ash had photographic memory. Delia had not been that surprised but she was proud of her gifted son.

After this discovery and learning how Ash was able to process information much faster although he had long since suspected this, Professor Oak had decided to teach Ash more advanced things about Pokémon by not only using books, but also the research he had done and papers he had written.

Delia meanwhile, continued homeschooling him and taught him math, sciences, history and pretty much anything else he wanted to learn which was almost everything. Within a year, she found that she had nothing left to teach him since he had learned everything that she knew and hence he had begun to study by himself using the advanced books math, physics, human and Pokémon biology, chemistry, history, geography, etc. he found in the lab.

Even while he was stuffing his brain with information, Ash still found the time to spend with his mom in which they grew closer and she taught him how to cook, play the guitar and told him stories of how she had traveled to all sorts of regions on her journey as a Pokémon coordinator.

While not studying or spending time with his mom, Ash spend every waking moment in the Corral, learning and playing with the Pokémon, sometimes even heading into the forest but never venturing too far. He learned so much about them and made a lot of friends with the Pokémon that lived their along with slowly gaining the ability to understand what some of the Pokémon were saying some of the time.

He had also gotten comfortable being around Professor Oak and the various scientists in the building and had formed a small temporary bond of friendship with Gary. However, that had quickly collapsed when Gary saw how far and fast Ash was going and how easily he was able to learn and how smart he was. It didn't help that Professor Oak and every scientist in the building always seemed astounded by Ash which ended up causing Gary to be jealous. As time went on Gary's jealousy continued to grow and had only gotten worse with the past three years, despite Oak or Gary's parents never once having neglected him.

Ash had noticed Gary's jealousy and how he stopped being friendly to him but didn't do anything about it mainly because he did not know how. He had read books about human psychology but due to the fact that he did not have any friends before Gary and he was still not a people's person, he didn't know how to become friends with him again. Gary would never talk to him after the first few months of their friendship and after that they had just drifted apart with Ash becoming more and more engrossed in not only learning about Pokémon but also just learning in general.

Ash had discovered a passion and liking for learning something new and it only grew with time. It was after the first year and a half did he also discover another hobby he liked doing which was exercising mainly because he had been getting easily exhausted when he played with Pokémon but as he played more and more, it became less and less. And after learning about the human body he wanted to grow stronger and increase his stamina so he could play with them more. So, he did some jogging and stretches everyday since he learned that exercising too heavily early on may stunt his growth.

So, with exercising incorporated into his daily schedule, Ash continued to grow as he became smarter, grew more in tune with Pokémon, become closer with his mom and learn different things from her, along with increasing his stamina.

Before they knew it, three years had passed and Ash was now nine-years old. Professor Oak, Delia and the scientists had found themselves completely shocked at how much Ash had learned. He now rivaled Professor Oak in terms of knowledge of Pokémon and outclassed everyone else in terms of general knowledge.

It was around this point in time did Oak realize that Ash fit almost every requirement of being a Pokémon Professor, with the only thing being left was for him to publish a research paper on something with hard evidence backing it up or make some new discovery for him to be considered a Professor and being the youngest one in the world at that. It was obvious Ash was very special but also saddening for him and Delia to see him not being able to enjoy a normal childhood.

Regardless, Professor Oak made Ash a junior Pokémon Researcher and his apprentice until he completed the final step and became a Professor. Of course, this decision was made after talking to Delia and Ash who both agreed with him and Delia had been so proud of Ash.

However, Gary became more distant with Oak after this decision and he changed a lot as he always felt the need to flaunt whatever he did in an effort to make himself look superior to others. It did not go unnoticed by anyone and Professor Oak and his parents tried to talk to him but he ignored their words. Despite this, they kept trying on occasion although it was becoming increasingly difficult.

Currently, it was around 8:00 a.m. in the morning and Ash was doing his daily run around the perimeter of Pallet town, ignoring Oak's Corral. He was nearly done the ten-mile jog which had taken him around an hour to complete which was very impressive for his age and his body had improved a lot physically.

He was currently nearing the fence of Oak's corral as he jogged up the small grassy hill before eventually reaching it. Ash then laid down on the ground with his arms and legs spread out as he breathed in heavily, taking in the sweet oxygen as his exhaustion slowly left him. After about ten minutes, he got up dusting his black t-shirt and black sweat pants.

Ash then walked over to the door in the tall fence and brought out a small key from his pocket and opened the lock on the door and walked into the Corral before closing it behind him. It would still be around an hour before his mom would finish making breakfast to sate his enormous appetite and hence he would use this time playing around with the Pokémon friends he made in the past three years as he was already done his other exercises which he did before his jog.

As he walked through the grassy clearing, he saw some Pokémon sleeping on the ground while some were awake however, what caught his attention were a small group of Pokémon that were gathered around twenty meters away from the lake.

He walked over to the group of Bellsprout, Rattata, Raticate, Pichu, Pidgey, Pidgeotto and a single Bulbasaur, all of whom were watching a fight going on between two Pokémon a few meters in front of them. He instantly recognized one of the Pokémon which was a four-armed, bulky humanoid looking Pokémon which was Professor Oak's Machamp battling against a normal humanoid looking Pokémon which was Machamp's pre-evolved form, Machoke.

Ash had never seen that particular Machoke in the clearing leading him to believe that it must be a trainer's Pokémon that was just sent here. Once he reached the group of Pokémon who had long since sensed his presence and greeted their human friend when he stood beside him.

"Hey guys. What's going on here?" asked Ash although he had a very good idea as to why Machoke and Machamp were fighting.

The Bulbasaur looked at Ash and spoke, ("Machoke challenged Machamp to a fight, trying to prove he's stronger and better.")

Ash who had gotten even better at understand Poké speech, nodded his head. It was well known fighting type Pokémon loved to fight and always wanted to prove themselves as being strong. Not only that but they had a sense of honor in terms of plain combat with no moves involved to see who was the better fighter.

The crimson-eyed boy watched the fighting types fight with their fists and legs although it was extremely clear that Machamp was the superior fighter not only because of being the evolved form of the Machoke but also because of decades of combat experience. The Machoke did not stand a chance for a second as the moment the fight had started he had been on the defense trying to dodge Machamp's lightning fast punches and kicks yet failing completely.

Eventually, Machamp landed one final punch on Machamp's head, sending the fighting type to the ground, unconscious with some light bruises on its body. Machamp then stood to his full height and went over to a nearby Sitrus berry tree, to pick some of its fruit before bringing it to the Machoke and setting it beside him. They would help in recovering Machoke's strength and healing his injuries when he woke up.

Machamp then turned towards the Pokémon group and noticed Ash and quickly waved his hand and walked towards him. ("Good morning Ash.")

"Good morning Machamp." Ash replied back in English, knowing most if not all Pokémon are capable of understanding human speech. How else would they know what attacks to do when trainers commanded them?

("How was your morning run?") asked Machamp in a series of a few grunts and saying parts of its name repetitively.

"Very good." Said Ash as he noticed Machamp was not even the slightest bit tired from that fight. He noticed that the Machoke behind its evolved form had just regained consciousness and had begun eating the berries while looking at Machamp with respect.

This is what got Ash thinking as watching the two Pokémon fighting in hand-to-hand combat made him want to try it out too. Learning how to fight would be useful physical training and may come in handy should he ever need to defend himself in the future. So, he decided to ask Machamp to see if he would train him given how experienced the Pokémon is.

"Machamp, can you teach me how to fight like you do?" asked Ash surprising the fighting type and the nearby Pokémon with his request.

("Strange…never expected you to ask such a thing. Why do you want to learn how to fight?") asked Machamp out of curiosity.

"I want to learn how to defend myself. That and it just interests me." Said Ash.

While the first part was understandable to Machamp, the second reason was what interested Machamp the most. The fact that Ash just wanted to learn how to fight because it just interested him greatly appealed to him.

For fighting types, hand-to-hand combat was not a hobby but a way of life for them. Any and all fighting types absolutely loved it and it was why Machamp nodded almost enthusiastically to Ash's request, excited at the prospect of teaching a human how to fight.

("Ok. But you will have to pour your entire heart in learning. You know that fighting is a way of life for all fighting types so you will need to give it your all.") explained Machamp to which Ash simply nodded but had a fire in his eyes that made Machamp shudder with anticipation. This was going to be fun for both of them but he would make sure Ash did not get hurt. He did not need Ash's angry mother on his back. He had seen how terrifying woman, especially mothers are for both humans and Pokémon and he did not want to be on the receiving end of their wrath.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, Machamp gazed into Ash's crimson red eyes and spoke in an authoritative tone, ("Stand tall with your feet shoulder with apart and slightly bent. For now, I am going to train you on how to perform powerful and fast punches with proper form before moving onto kicking. I will show you first.")

Ash followed the Pokémon's instructions as the other Pokémon watched them closely, looking very interested in seeing how their human friend would fare in learning from the veteran fighting type fighter.

Machamp then stood in his fighting stance similar to Ash's while his arms stood close by his side while their muscles were bulging, with a few veins popping out here and there. He then launched a single punch with his bottom right arm and it was a very fast punch but he held back so Ash could see his hand move. If he were to punch at full speed and power, his hand would practically be invisible.

("Now you try.")

Ash saw Machamp's arm and hand movement and his mind memorized every single detail of the movement in his head. He then took a deep breath and used his memory of the form and punched in front of him following the exact same movement as Machamp's arm had a few seconds ago. As expected for someone who had never fought before, his speed and power behind the punch was pathetic to say the least but Machamp had expected as much. But what caught his attention was that Ash had absolutely perfect form in his punch and followed the exact same thing he did. This caused the Pokémon to grin as it seems that Ash had lots of potential and he planned on bringing it out.

Ash felt a cold shiver go through his spine. 'Why do I get the feeling I just made a big mistake?' He was broken out of those thoughts when Machamp ordered him to do the punch with his other arm after he demonstrated it for him. Ash was then ordered to repeatedly punch the space in front of him, rotating between his right and left arm consecutively non-stop.

Behind Machamp, Machoke had been listening to the conversation and had also joined in on the training, wanting to get stronger like the seasoned fighter.

* * *

It was now 9:15 a.m. and Ash had just opened the door to his home, and walked in. "I'm home mom!" He shouted out while closing the door and taking his shoes off.

Delia walked into the hall he was in as he slipped into his slippers and had her arms crossed. "Your 15 minutes late young man and why are you so…wet?" asked Delia as she saw Ash's clothes sticking to him and his body was covered in sweat, making him seem like he had just taken a dip in a lake.

Ash sighed, knowing his mom was very punctual when it came to time and always expected him to be home by 9: 00a.m for breakfast. "Well…after my run, I got a little side-tracked with the Pokémon at the Corral. Can I take a shower first, I'll explain everything at breakfast." Said Ash while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head with his right hand and had a goofy smile on his face.

The mock seriousness of Delia's face fell as she gave him a warm smile and seeing him like this brought up some memories of her husband again as he always acted like that when she scolded him. "Ok, go take a shower."

Ash nodded his head and walked past her, making her clench her nose at the heavy smell of sweat and dirt that came from him. "And clean really well. You stink!"

Ash looked back at her as he walked up the stairs and blew a raspberry at her before continuing. Delia smiled at Ash's retreating back, seeing this child like side of his was a rare treat for her and was something she was getting to see more of with increasing frequency. She was right in that spending time around Professor Oak, the people of the lab and the Pokémon in the Corral had helped him open up a lot. He was still very wary around strangers but was still able to say a few words to them but at least it helped him be open and himself more around the people he knew.

She still wished he would have friends his age but the only one he had was Gary a little less then three years ago and that had ended rather soon and abruptly. Shaking her head from those thoughts, she headed back into the kitchen and prepared the dining table with a couple of dishes and placed the plates of omelettes and bacon on it before getting some glasses of orange juice. She then sat down and waited for Ash to be finished with his shower and passed the time by watching her Pokémon eat their food from their bowls.

A few minutes later, she saw Ash walk into the room, wearing a loose and comfortable red t-shirt and white shorts while his short, spiky raven-hair was still a bit wet. He sat down on the chair behind his plate which was in front of her across the table.

The two then began eating and Ash decided it was time to explain what had happened today. "Mom..." he saw that she placed her gaze on him. "After, I finished jogging today, I saw Machamp having a fight with a Machoke. Don't worry it was a normal friendly spar but after it was over, I asked Machamp to see if he could train me in hand-to-hand combat and he agreed to it. I was late because he was teaching me how to punch."

Delia hummed in response which confused Ash since he expected her to be angry at him for doing something reckless. "That's good."

"It is?"

"Yes. I was planning on putting you in Karate class to help you learn how to defend yourself but this is even better. It's a good skill to have. I was in fact a brown belt in karate before I had left for my journey." Explained Delia.

"Wow…" said Ash in awe. He knew earning a brown belt in karate was quite the achievement as it was only two levels below being a black belt.

"Do you plan on going on a journey Ash?" asked Delia as it had been on her mind for quite a while now. "I can see how much you love Pokémon so it would make sense if you wanted to go on a journey."

"I don't know…I haven't really thought about it much." Explained Ash although the idea of meeting all kinds of new Pokémon was very appealing.

"Its okay. You still have five years to decide but just know that whatever you decide to do, I'm going to support you."

"Thanks mom." Ash responded with a happy smile.

"You know I'm really glad the League changed the rules of only allowing kids to become trainers after they turn fourteen rather then ten and the need to get legal permission from the league in some way. I read so many cases in the newspaper of kids being killed due to reckless actions or having no knowledge on Pokémon." Explained Delia with a small frown at the end of it. The rules had been changed before she became a trainer but she remembered reading one rather disturbing report of a kid angering a group of Spearow by throwing a rock at a single one thus angering an entire flock and being pecked to death.

"I agree." Said Ash with a nod, breaking Delia out of her thoughts before the two continued to eat their breakfast. Once they were done, Ash decided to ask something that had been on his mind, "Hey mom, when you were a trainer, did you try and evolve your Pokémon right away or did you train them first as much as you can and perhaps delay their evolution before evolving them?"

"Why do you ask?" asked Delia, genuinely surprised by the question.

"Well, I have been working on a paper about something that caught my eye but I first need to find supporting evidence. I already found some of what I am looking for thanks to all the Pokémon in the Corral but I would like to gather information from trainers as well." Explained Ash to which Delia nodded.

"Well, my Eevee and their evolutions had been the Pokémon I had from the very beginning thanks to my mom and dad running a day-care center for Pokémon. When I went on my journey with them, I each gave them an Everstone to prevent them from evolving since I wanted to train them a lot first. After around a year or more is when I gave them the option of which form they wanted to evolve to." Explained Delia.

"Did you notice how they may have been much stronger after their evolution? Like much, much more then you expected?" asked Ash getting to the point he wanted to know.

"Now that you mention it, yes. After they evolved, I began winning almost every single battle and practically never lost a single contest battle ever." Said Delia as she remembered her days as a trainer and coordinator.

"I see…" said Ash as he became deep engrossed in his thoughts.

"What is it?" asked Delia, now becoming very curious to see where her genius of a son was heading with this.

"You know how Pokémon become stronger when they evolve right, due to their body changing and becoming physically better and getting more power in general?" asked Ash to which Delia nodded. "Well I noticed that there were sometimes two Pokémon of the exact same species, specifically, I had seen a pair of Arcanine, where one was much stronger then the other and while this is possible depending on the trainer or genetics, I had talked to both of them and learned completely different things. One of the Arcanine said that he had been evolved from a Growlithe without any form of proper training by a trainer while the other Arcanine said that his trainer had trained him extensively in all aspects before using a Fire Stone to evolve him."

"So, your saying that during evolution, a Pokémon will carry over all its physical characteristics and other powers it has in its next evolution?" concluded Delia.

"Yes. It has always been assumed that if you train a Pokémon right and let it gain enough battle experience than it will evolve and grow and eventually evolve but no one by far ever bothered to research into the fact that Pokémon's pre-evolved form plays a key role in the strength, potential and health of a Pokémon even after it evolves."

"How does it affect their health?"

"If a Pokémon is heavily injured and say is in a life and death situation or under enough stress that it wills its own evolution to occur, it can sometimes disable a Pokémon for life. An example would be the Primeape that had been transferred to Professor Oak a year ago. Do you remember it?" Delia nodded. "Well I had noticed that there had been a slight limp in his left step but was barely noticeable so no one else had noticed it. When I asked the Primeape about it, he said that his left thigh bone had been broken when he was in a fierce battle with another trainers Pokémon before he had been captured. He had forced himself to evolve to fight more but because he evolved when he had a serious injury, that injury now had become permanent and it was something he could never recover from. There is a lot of biological facts that would explain this but it will be too long and tedious to explain."

Delia had been astounded by this piece of information. "I see…do you have any more evidence to support your theory?" she asked. If this theory was proven then it would affect trainers and Pokémon in general around the world as people would finally listen and not try to get their Pokémon to evolve to their final stage as soon as possible. Not only that but the medical field would be able to advance with this piece of information.

"Not that much at the moment. While I have enough to give my theory some merit, I still need some more time and evidence before I can completely prove it and for it to be accepted not only by the scientific community but the rest of the world." Explained Ash.

"Well, I'm here to help so don't be afraid to ask." Delia replied with a smile.

"I know but I want to do this on my own. I would like it if you could teach me more of your amazing cooking." Asked Ash with a grin to which Delia happily nodded and began ranting about a new recipe she had been working on consisting of a homemade lasagna pizza combination.

* * *

 **5 years later**

* * *

After his conversation with Delia, Ash had spent quite a lot of his time researching his theory and after a year had passed, he had collected all the data he needed that would support and prove his theory on how a Pokémon's evolution is directly affected by its pre-evolved form's physical strengths and weaknesses, overall power and its health condition at the time. He had written up a full detailed report on it and submitted it to Professor Oak who had read over it.

Needless to say, the Kanto Professor had been shocked for the umpteenth time as he had read Ash's report and had wasted no time in not only getting it published and sent out to the entire Pokémon scientific community but also officially made Ash a Pokémon Professor after a conversation with the league and once all of the legal steps were completed. Ash had decided that he will not focus on any particular research as he liked to keep his options open.

The entire scientific community, hell the entire world had been stunned to learn that a ten-year-old boy managed to earn the title of Pokémon Professor and make such a ground-breaking discovery. The media was basically drooling and trying their best to get their hands on him but a stern warning from Professor Oak and Ash was all the League needed to keep the Media at bay.

After that fiasco had been over, Ash had returned to absorbing any non-Pokémon related knowledge he had left while continuing all his other activities and advancing further into his hand-to-hand combat training from Machamp. He had advanced leaps and bound in this training and had slowly started to increase the intensity of his workout routine more and more. Delia and Professor Oak both had been worried for him so they kept a close eye on him during his training.

As time went on, his love for Pokémon grew and he had thought a lot about his mom's words about going on a journey and soon enough he had agreed whole heartedly and decided that he would go travel around the world when he turned fourteen.

While being saddened that her son would soon leave her for a journey, she had expected it and couldn't have been prouder of him. So as the years went by, she taught him all sorts of survival skills she picked up on during her travels and from Richard, along with some other small pieces of advice.

Ash had listened to all of his mother's words and instantly memorized everything she told and taught him. Not only that but during the past five years, he published even more papers and became even more well known as not only the youngest Professor but quite possibly the smartest of them all.

Ash had discovered a direct correlation between the energy a Pokémon releases when hatching from an egg and Pokémon evolution, publishing a paper on it with hard evidence. In addition to this, Ash had started up a debate that most likely, Eevee is the most closely related to the supposed ancestor of all Pokémon, Mew. The main reason behind why Ash suggested this theory was because, Eevee had numerous evolutions, the most of any Pokémon in fact, and each one can be suited to survive in different environments. Plus, according to legend, Mew is capable of learning any Pokémon move in existence so Ash believed this diversity in evolution and ability to learn moves must be related suggesting that Eevee could be one of the oldest living Pokémon, second to Mew.

Furthermore, Ash had also managed to learn quite a bit of computer programming through some fiddling and had managed to understand how Poké Balls worked. The spheres transform the matter that makes up the Pokémon into energy and stores the data inside. The data would then separate the consciousness of the Pokémon and allow it to live in an artificial environment which was one of the reasons, why some Pokémon were able to come out of their Poké Ball at their will. It was quite the remarkable feat of technology, that was for sure.

Regardless, by the time he was thirteen, Ash had nothing left to learn and he was looking forward to his journey quite a bit despite not having a clear goal in mind other then just learning as much as he can about Pokémon. So, he spent the last year just preparing for the journey ahead by learning everything he could from his mom and getting tips from her and Professor Oak. Not only that, but he had long since been saving up quite a bit of the regular money he got from the league after he became a Pokémon Professor, along with all of the money he had made through his discoveries. Needless to say, Ash had been quite a rich man and his income had greatly helped his mom in running their home and improving it a lot. He had used his saved-up money for numerous supplies for his journey such as full-restores, various potions, full heals, various protein and vitamin jars, and got a custom-made order of Apricorn Poké Balls from Kurt, a Poké Ball crafts man and Professor Oak's old friend. Kurt used the unique properties of Apricorns, which were a type of fruit similar to berries but still very different, to make different types of Poké Balls with unique properties.

Once Ash had bought all the supplies, he had made sure he had a good amount saved in his bank that he would need to spend while on the road. While he knew that trainers got money transferred to their bank account from other trainers whenever they won battles, it was still good to have that stash of cash.

After that had been done, Delia had surprised Ash when she had bought him a state of the art sleeping bag, tent and various other things that came with numerous features, along with sewing custom-made clothes of her own design for Ash keeping his preferences in mind.

With everything having been set, Ash had found himself unable to sleep the night before his adventure officially began. He was a bit nervous of leaving his home and meeting new people but he had greatly improved from the years when he could barely function around strangers. Now he can easily hold a conversation but he typically just avoided people as much as he could. But, the reason he could not sleep was because of the sheer excitement coursing through him of meeting numerous Pokémon on the journey ahead. He knew of all the known Pokémon in the world but reading about them and meeting them in person were two completely different experiences.

So, as the fourteen-year-old boy laid on his bed, he closed his eyes taking deep breaths and calmed himself down before he slowly started drifting into a nice dreamless sleep, knowing he needed to get enough rest if he was to get a starter Pokémon in the morning tomorrow.

* * *

Ash woke up bright and early at 6:00a.m. in his nice queen-sized bed. He took off the covers and did a nice big stretch before he got off the bed and walked out of his small room, towards the washroom to brush his teeth. Once he had been done that, he got into some sweat pants and a t-shirt as usual before he walked out of the house and ran to the outskirts of the town before starting to jog which would have been a sprint for normal people, around the perimeter.

As Ash ran across the grass and felt the cool crisp breeze of the early morning brushing against his skin and chased away any residual sleepiness from recently waking up. As he kept running, his excitement kept growing as he would be getting a starter Pokémon today and would go on a journey throughout the Kanto region before heading out to explore all of the other regions out there. He already had a starter picked out in his mind and it was a Pokémon that had appealed to him greatly especially after he met it around a week ago when the Pokémon came to the lab.

With his blood pumping through his body and his mind frenzied with excitement at the journey ahead, Ash ran in a much faster pace and managed to complete the ten-mile run in less then thirty minutes before he ran back to the backyard of his home where he had numerous boulders of various sizes laid out. Using them as weights he did lots of exercises such as pull-ups, all variations of push-ups, burpees, squats and a whole slew of exercises. He trained like a man getting ready for war but to him it was just natural since he loved the way his muscles ached and begged for rest, how his body got tired with the intense workout that would make other's think Ash was insane, and how his hot blood pumped through his entire body, boiling from the intensity of the workout.

When he had been done his workout, it was 9:00 a.m. and he needed to reach the lab in an hour and by this point his mom must have been done breakfast so he took off his shirt which had been sticking to his body due to his chest revealing his extremely ripped athletic body. For a boy who had a weak body since his birth, his body was now extremely strong, durable and sculpted to perfection and had an impressive height of 5 feet, 8 inches. He was not overly large but he had enough bulging muscles and with his low 5% body fat, they looked even more defined and big showing the extreme power they must have packed and making his body look very ripped.

Ash then walked over to the back porch where a towel lay hanging there which he took to wipe the sweat from his body and walked in through the back door and found his mom waiting at the dining table.

"Good morning mom!"

"Good morning Ash." Said Delia who had been impressed by before by her son's body and the intense training he put through it. She knew he would have ladies fawning over him left and right with his handsome face, captivating crimson red-eyes and the perfectly sculpted body. She would have so much fun teasing him in the future when he gets himself a girlfriend.

As Ash walked out of the dining room and kitchen and headed towards the bathroom, he felt a cold shiver travel through his spine not knowing why he felt a vague sensation that a lot of embarrassment awaited him in the future. He shook those thoughts out of his head as he quickly took a shower before wearing the outfit his mom had prepared for him for the journey ahead. The outfit consisted of white t-shirt with a fire design on it, a nice and comfy dark-blue jacket on top of it which was a combination between a sweater and a vest-jacket, loose yet comfy black jeans that were made of a special type of material that allowed them to stretch more easily but still hold their jean like look.

Once he walked down stairs and sat down at the dining table, he began filling his plate with food.

"It looks really good on you." Said Delia with a small smile that Ash returned.

"Of course, it would look good. You made it after all mom."

Delia giggled at the response. Her son was always honest and unknowingly always gave flattery comments to those close to him. She began eating her breakfast alongside him as she started talking, "I packed all your things so make sure to come by here to pick them up when you get your starter. Have you decided what starter you are going to get?"

"Yep. It was hard since Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander all look like great Pokémon but I decided a while ago on who my first Pokémon will be."

"That's good. Remember everything I taught you ok." Ash nodded and the two went back to finishing their breakfast. Delia had a very good idea as to who Ash will be choosing as his starter Pokémon due to his interaction with one of the starter Pokémon that had come in just a week ago due to a certain incident the Pokémon had with its trainer.

Once they were done eating, Ash stood up and took his and his mom's dishes before washing them in the sink while Delia went to check up on Ash's back-pack, making sure she had everything packed. Soon enough, Ash was done with the dishes and so walked into the hallway that led to the living room, kitchen and their main entrance door. He saw his mom looking through the new back-pack she bought and making sure everything was in there.

"Mom, I'm heading to Professor Oak's lab for my starter. I'll be back soon!" said Ash.

"Ok honey!" Delia called out to which Ash nodded and exited the house.

The crimson-eyed teenager then begun to run down the road towards Professor Oak's lab, not having the patience to walk there, plus it was 9:30 a.m. so might as well hurry and have the chance to get the Pokémon he wanted before the other two trainers that were coming today to get their starter Pokémon.

He eventually made it up the stairs of the hill that Oak's lab stood on top of and brought out a small key which he used to unlock the front door to the lab and walk in. He was making his way into the main research room of the lab before he noticed a bunch of chatter coming from the living room of the lab.

So, he walked into the living room and was immediately greeted with the sight of Professor Oak sitting on the single seat leather sofa, while two figures sat on the three-seat sofa. The first figure was a white-haired man with a thick white mustache, wearing a brown trench coat with a blue dress-shirt and tie underneath along with black dress pants. Ash instantly recognized this man as Professor Rowan, the regional Pokémon Professor of Sinnoh, specializing in Pokémon evolution. He had talked to the man before through the video chat phones after he had released his initial research paper.

The second figure was someone he did not recognize. It was a light golden-haired woman; whose hair went down to her knees most likely and a bang covered her left eye which was steel grey in color, Ash could tell since he saw her uncovered right eye. She wore black pants, a black blouse, and black running shoes with black tear drop shaped hair pins being on the sides of her head, two on each. Ash noticed she was most likely the same age as him but carried an aura of maturity around her and had a physical beauty that outclassed any female woman he has ever seen. It seemed supernatural honestly.

The people in the room had instantly noticed Ash and Professor Oak had gotten up to introduce him to the other two who also had gotten up from their seats.

"Ash, its good you're here. Let me introduce you to our guests. As I'm sure you know, this is Professor Rowan, the regional Pokémon professor of the Sinnoh region. He's here to help me on a research project" Said Oak as he gestured towards the man.

Ash stepped forward and shook the man's hand. "Hello."

"Hello Professor Ketchum. Its good to finally meet you in person." Said the man with a smile, his usual scowl leaving his face.

"Likewise."

"And this is Cynthia Shirona. She is a first-year trainer from the Sinnoh region. She recently made top 4 in the Sinnoh league conference"

Ash shook her hand as well, mentally noting how soft and delicate it felt but could feel the strength in it. He also realized what her name meant and voice it, "Goddess of the moon that loves to grow stronger. Beautiful name." He said while internally was very impressed with her accomplishment. Making top 4 in a league conference as a first-year trainer was very hard to do considering that around a thousand trainers compete every single year in each of the various regional conferences. Making it that far requires incredible skill and trust between the trainer and their Pokémon.

"Thank you. I have heard a lot about you." Greeted Cynthia while blushing, not having known the meaning of her name and surprised at the unexpected compliment. She had heard quite a bit about him given how famous his reputation got of the youngest Pokémon Professor in history. However, she was surprised by his greetings and the fact that she was not used to such simplicity or actual compliments with no other intentions behind him.

She had been a fashion model since the age of ten because of her supernatural beauty before quitting and starting her journey as a trainer when she turned fourteen. She had gotten fans asking for her autograph more often then she would like and it irritated her to no end but she had gotten used to it. This simple greeting and nice easy atmosphere was a nice change for her. Plus, it helped that the teenager in front of her was very handsome and his crimson red eyes were quite captivating.

"Hope they were all nice things." Ash replied back, shaking Cynthia from her thoughts.

Cynthia's lips twitched upward at the quirky response. "Oh, they were."

"So, Ash ready to receive your starter Pokémon?" asked Oak.

Ash eagerly nodded his head and this statement caught Cynthia's interest. "You're starting on your journey today?"

Ash nodded again while Professor Oak began to explain. "Ash wants to see and meet all kinds of various Pokémon around the world and has wanted to go on a journey for a while now. Being in the lab and Corral can only teach him so much."

"Do you have any goal?" asked Cynthia.

Ash shook his head. "I'm hoping my journey will provide me with that."

"I'm sure it will Professor Ketchum. So, who do you plan on choosing as your starter?" asked Professor Rowan.

"You'll see." Said Ash as Oak led them through a hall way before they arrived inside a room with lots of high tech looking machines, a large screen on the left wall, and a cylindrical shaped device in the center of the room that held three Poké Balls.

Professor Oak stepped up to the device in the room. "The Poké Ball to the left, contains Bulbasaur the Seed Pokémon and is a grass-poison type. The middle Poké Ball contains Charmander the Lizard Pokémon and is a fire type. The Poké Ball contains Squirtle, the Tiny Turtle Pokémon and is a water type. So, who will be your first Pokémon Ash?" Oak asked, despite having a good idea to the answer.

Ash smiled and stepped up to the device and immediately took the middle Poké Ball. "Charmander is my choice. I already know him and we became good friends in the week he has been here."

"A nice choice. Charmander's final evolution Charizard is a very fearsome Pokémon." Commented Professor Rowan.

"That doesn't really matter to me. Any Pokémon can be strong and fearsome if trained and raised the right way. I chose Charmander because he became my friend and asked me a few days ago if he could go on a journey with me." Explained Ash.

Cynthia had a neutral look on her face although she was very interested when Ash mentioned of how any Pokémon can become very strong. She wanted to be the most powerful trainer in the world and since Ash was a Pokémon Professor and would now be going on a journey, maybe she could travel with him and learn from him.

"That's a nice way of thinking. If only many trainers thought like you did." Said Professor Rowan, really happy at the raven-haired teen's response.

"Hopefully they will one day. Come on out Charmander!" said Ash before releasing the Pokémon within the red and white sphere.

From the Poké Ball, came an reptilian Pokémon with an orange body, cream colored chest and soles, four fingered hands and three clawed toes along with a fire burning at the tip of its slender tail. The fire type immediately landed on Ash's and immediately launched itself at his friend, embracing him which Ash returned.

"Its good to see you Charmander."

("It's great to see you too!") exclaimed Charmander in happiness.

"I'm going to be leaving for my journey today. As I promised, you'll be coming along as my starter." Said Ash with a warm smile.

("Yay!") Charmander exclaimed in happiness.

"So, do you want a nickname Charmander?" asked Ash to which the fire type happily nodded. Ash thought a bit, going through various possible nicknames, trying to pick one that suited the fire type. "How about Ignis?" Charmander liked the sound of the name and nodded his head. "Ignis it is."

Ash then scratched the newly dubbed, Ignis behind his head which Ash knew the fire type loved resulting in lots of cooing from the Lizard Pokémon.

"How did you and Charmander…Ignis meet?" asked Cynthia in a curious tone because from what she observed, Ash and the fire type seemed to have met before.

Ignis finally realized that they weren't alone in the room and turned to looked at the two people he did not know with wary eyes but recognized Professor Oak. "Ignis' pervious trainer abandoned him and sent him back to Professor Oak about a week ago. I met him then." Said Ash in a deep growling tone while Ignis seemed sad at the mention of his previous trainer. "Come now Ignis, none of that. I'm your friend now so forget your last trainer. You're a powerful and special Pokémon and if you want, I will try my best to train you into the best and strongest Charizard in the world." Said Ash trying to cheer his starter up which worked.

Ignis' eyes sparkled at the mention of being the strongest Charizard in the world. He nodded his head; all his previous sadness being gone.

Meanwhile, the two professors and Cynthia watched the scene with a smile while internally growling at the trainer who abandoned the fire type. Those types of trainers did not deserve to even have Pokémon.

"Well now that that's done, here is your Pokédex and five Poké Balls for you Ash." Said Professor Oak shaking everyone out of their thoughts. The man brought out a black Pokédex with white outlines, along with five normal Poké Balls from his lab-coat pocket. "Because you are a Pokémon Professor, you will be receiving some privileges compared to other trainers. For one, your Pokédex is a national Pokédex so it will recognize any Pokémon that has been discovered so far but I doubt you need it considering you know about all of them. However, the feature of scanning your Pokémon to find out what moves they know will come in handy and the Pokédex serves as your identification and trainers' license."

"The second benefit you get is that, your carrying capacity is doubled so now you can have twelve Pokémon on you rather then the typical six but be careful since taking care of that many Pokémon at once can be difficult and you would need to carry a lot of Pokémon food on you to feed them." Explained Oak to which Ash nodded his head. "It's a good thing you came early today. There is still ten minutes left until Gary and the other trainer, Ethan is supposed to arrive for their starter."

"I'm going to head to the Corral to say goodbye to all the Pokémon before I head back home. Thanks for everything Professor." Said Ash as he gave the man a brief hug surprising Oak greatly since this was the first time he received one from the boy.

"It was nothing my-boy. Now let's go to the Corral." Ash nodded and placed Ignis on his shoulder.

Cynthia and Professor Rowan smiled at how close the two seemed and followed the two as they headed towards the Corral. After, passing through the glass doors in the living room, they eventually entered the Corral and were in awe of how amazing it looked.

They were brought out of their thoughts when they saw Ash stepping forward and placing both of his hands on his mouth and taking a deep breath. He then let out a very unique whistle that rapidly fluctuated between high and low notes and was quite pleasant to hear. What they saw next surprised them greatly as a huge stampede of Pokémon were running towards them from all directions of the Corral. Hell, they even saw a Gyarados slithering on land, coming towards them.

Cynthia instinctively reached for her Poké Ball but Professor Oak's voice stopped her. "Its alright Cynthia."

Cynthia and the somewhat tense Professor Rowan calmed down and watched as the stampeded of all sorts of Pokémon, the majority being one's from Kanto raced towards them and eventually stopped a few meters away from the group.

"Hey everyone!" The Pokémon all roared, shouted, and screeched various greetings. "I'm going to be heading out on my journey today so I probably won't see you all for a while." The Pokémon looked sad at the fact but listened as Ash continued to speak. "I will visit you all when I get back to Pallet Town so please cheer up everyone."

The Pokémon visibly cheered up but were still sad that their human friend was leaving. He was then swarmed by hugs from all of them which he returned, being careful not to hurt the nervous Ignis on his shoulder while Professor Oak talked to Professor Rowan and Cynthia.

"He has been close to all of the Pokémon in my Coral ever since he was little. He didn't like being around people much but was always so comfortable around Pokémon. Almost every single Pokémon in the Corral is his friend and I think Ash even developed the ability to understand what they are saying." Explained Oak when he had seen the shocked expressions of Rowan and Cynthia.

"Amazing." Cynthia whispered in awe.

"He sure is." Said Oak with fondness.

"You should travel through Kanto with him Cynthia. You can learn a lot from him just like he can learn a lot from you." Said Rowan.

"I think I will, but I need to ask him first."

It was a short while later did Ash finish saying his final goodbyes to all his Pokémon friends did he turn towards the two professors and one trainer but he heard a shocking sound coming from beside the Lab.

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Ash to which the Pokémon behind him nodded but the Professors and trainer remained confused.

"Hear what Ash?" asked Oak but Ash remained silent as he slowly walked to the side of the lab.

The people remained confused but followed him while the Pokémon did as well although they were much calmer since they could sense the Pokémon.

When Ash turned the corner of the lab, he saw a yellow mouse like Pokémon which he instantly recognized as a Pikachu, who was chewing on the thick wires that went from the wind mill to the lab. When Ash analyzed the Pikachu, he saw that the mouse was somewhat thin showing that it had most likely has not eaten in quite a while and was trying to sate its hunger by absorbing electricity from the wires.

Ash turned to the Pokémon behind him and whispered to a Bulbasaur, "Can you get some Sitrus and Oran berries?"

The grass-poison type nodded and immediately ran off to do as his friend had said while Ash started slowly walking over to the electric type and the Professors and trainer watched carefully.

Pikachu had sensed all the Pokémon and humans and looked at them with wary eyes. He had gotten without food for so long that he barely had the strength to move. He was barely able to cut through the thick wires to absorb some electricity which only sated his hunger for a short while before it came back with full force.

Ash stood only a few feet away and bent down to seem less threatening to the mouse Pokémon while Ignis leaped off his shoulder and landed on the ground. "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."

("My friend is a very nice human.") said Ignis causing the Pikachu to relax slightly but its not like it had much strength to do anything.

Soon enough Bulbasaur came back with his vines carrying a large amount of Oran and Sitrus berries which he laid out in front of Ash, close to the Pikachu.

"Go ahead Pikachu. I can tell you have not eaten in while." Encouraged Ash in a gentle tone.

Pikachu looked warily at the food but seeing something to eat right in front of him made him go forward and lightly nibble on one of the Oran berries. When he saw the human and Pokémon with kind and gentle smiles on their faces, the electric type's caution lowered and thus began devouring the berries at a fast pace, loving the rich taste that exploded in his mouth and the feeling of his belly finally being filled.

After a short while, Pikachu was done eating finally happy that its hunger had been sated. Ash stepped forward extending his hand in a gentle and non-threatening manner. Pikachu still looked wary but did not back away and was slightly stiff when Ash's hand made contact with his fur but quickly succumbed to the amazing petting he received. The electric type almost melted when Ash scratched behind his ears and became pudding in his hand, not protesting at all when Ash picked him up and carried him in his arm while continuing the petting.

The crimson-eyed teen then walked back to the group of Pokémon and people and smiled at them. "It seems this Pikachu hadn't eaten in a long time and was starving. He was trying to sate his hunger by absorbing the electricity generated from the windmill." Explained Ash.

"I see…that's why I had been experiencing power outages around my lab lately." Muttered Professor Oak in realization. "Let me do a thorough check of him, see if he's ok."

Ash nodded as he was about to hand Pikachu over to his fellow Professor when he felt Pikachu grab his clothing and shake his head.

"I guess the Pikachu has taken a liking to you Professor Ketchum." Said Rowan with a small smile.

"It sure seems that way." Said Cynthia watching the cute scene and finding it interesting at how gentle Ash seemed around Pokémon.

"I see. So, Pikachu, do you want to come along with my on my journey? I'm leaving right now." Said Ash to which the electric type nodded wanting to go along with the nice human.

"Ok then." Ash then brought out one of the Poké Balls that Oak gave him and tapped Pikachu lightly on the head and watched the electric type be absorbed inside the sphere in a flash of scarlet energy. The electric type put up no struggle causing the Poké Ball to instantly click, signifying his capture. Once that had happened Pikachu instantly appeared back outside in a flash of white energy and shook his head.

Ash smiled amusingly. "I'm guessing you don't like being inside Poké Balls huh?" Pikachu shook his head. "Ok, you can ride on my shoulder like Ignis." Said fire type who was beside him, jumped onto his shoulder and Pikachu followed on his other shoulder. "Which reminds me, do you want a nickname Pikachu?"

Pikachu nodded, liking the idea of having a nickname.

Ash thought for a short while, going through numerous names in his head before suggesting one that he thought was a good one. "How about Raijin?" The electric type nodded his head, liking the name. "Raijin it is."

"Caught your first Pokémon already huh Ash?" Oak asked in amusement.

Ash nodded his head with a small smile.

Cynthia then stepped up, find this a good time as any to ask what was on her mind, "Um, Professor Ketchum...I wanted ask you if I could travel with you on your journey through Kanto."

Ash looked at her and gazed into her steel silver eyes and found only sincerity. He did not want a traveling companion since he did not like being around people but since he would meet many different people on this journey, it would be good to have a traveling partner. Plus, Cynthia did have a year's worth of traveling experience so it would be good to have her around. After a few moments of contemplation, he nodded, "Ok. But if we are going to travel together then please just call me Ash."

"Ok. Call me Cynthia." Said the blonde-haired beauty with a nod receiving a nod from Ash.

Before they could continue their conversation, a scientist with black hair and lack eyes in the traditional white lab coat came up to them. "Professor Oak, your grandson and the trainer Ethan are here to get their starter Pokémon."

"Tell them I'm coming." The scientist nodded and went back into the lab before Oak turned to the group. "Let's head back inside."

Everyone nodded while the Pokémon said one last goodbye to Ash before they dispersed back into the Corral. Professor Oak and Rowan, along with Cynthia and Ash with his Pokémon in his shoulders, walked back into the living room and made their way to the same high tech room where the starter Pokémon were.

When they walked in they saw Gary in a purple shirt, dark blue pants and brown shoes and beside him was a boy with blonde hair and green eyes, wearing a dark blue hoodie, white knee-length trousers and black shoes.

"Well, well if it isn't the loser." Mocked Gary when he saw Ash come into the room but went wide eyed when he saw the two Pokémon on his shoulders. "You got your Pokémon already! Gramps why did you already give him his starter before us and he got two starters!"

"Gary, behave." Oak scolded. "I gave Ash his starter Charmander because had had formed a bond with it already from a week ago and the fire type wanted to go on a journey with Ash and as far as Pikachu goes, Ash just caught the little fellow when he was trying to chew through the wires that connected the lab with the windmill."

The blonde-haired boy nodded at the explanation not in the least bit irritated that Ash got his starter first but it was a whole other story for Gary who was once again seething in jealousy. "Whatever, its not like the puny little pipsqueak would ever hold a candle to the starter I'm going to get." Mocked Gary making Ignis angry but Ash petted him to calm him down.

"Ignore him." Muttered Ash before turning to Professor Oak. "I'm going home now Professor. I'll make sure to keep in touch."

"Ok. Bye Ash." Said Oak waving to the boy and Rowan gave his own farewell.

Cynthia followed Ash and Gary just then noticed the blonde goddess walking past him with Ash, but did not recognize the girl.

Professor Oak then began to introduce the Pokémon available to the two trainers and gave them regular Pokédex and five Poké Balls once they made their choice.

* * *

Ash along with his Pokémon and Cynthia just walked out of the lab after the blonde had gotten her huge back-pack with her traveling gear and changed into a pair of running shoes while keeping her black blouse and black pants on.

She saw him conversing with his two Pokémon looking like he understood every single word of what they were saying which sparked her interest. "Can you talk to any Pokémon Ash?"

Ash's conversation with his two new Pokémon halted as he turned to face Cynthia as they walked down the road after they had made their way down the hill. "Yes. I can understand what most Pokémon are saying although it helps if I spend more time around them."

Cynthia nodded before another question rose in her head. "Since you don't have a clear destination in mind, can we head to the eight official gyms since I want to participate in the Indigo League Conference."

"Ok." Said Ash before silence enveloped them and they reached Ash's home.

Delia who had been waiting on the front porch of their house was glad to see her son back so soon but was surprised to find him with two Pokémon on his shoulder and even more surprised when she saw a very beautiful blonde-haired woman in black clothing walking beside him.

"Hey mom!" greeted Ash before giving her a hug while the two Pokémon jumped off of his shoulders and Cynthia found it adorable especially since he did not seem the least bit embarrassed about showing his mom affection like many other kids his age would be around someone else.

"Hi Ash." Delia greeted back as she returned his hug before breaking off. "You know Ash I thought you went to the lab to get starter Pokémon but I didn't think you would come back with a girlfriend too."

"Mom!" Ash shouted in embarrassment as his cheeks turned crimson and Cynthia was no better as her cheeks also turned scarlet red.

Delia giggled at the reactions of the two. "Oh relax, I'm just teasing you. It's a mother's job to embarrass her kid after all." She then turned to look at the blonde. "My name is Delia. I'm Ash's mother. Please to meet you."

Cynthia shook Delia's hand and introduced herself. "My name is Cynthia. I'm pleased to meet you Mrs. Ketchum. I will be Ash's traveling partner throughout his journey through Kanto."

"Oh wow, such a manners and maturity, you definitely found a gem Ashy." Teased Delia getting another embarrassed shout from Ash.

"Ok, ok I'm done now." Delia said after a short round of giggling. "Now here is your bag Ash. I packed everything for you and put a small gift in their that will help you out on your journey. It's a small box that uses the Poké Ball's technology to store large quantities of various food so you can carry a large amount of food for you and your Pokémon without it weighing you down. It will be useful for you when you don't access to a city or town to re-stock on supplies."

Ash's eyes widened as he knew such a device existed but was fairly expensive and really hard to get. "Thanks a lot mom. You're the best!" Ash said while giving her another hug before bending down to pick up his bag but before he could Delia, handed him a hand-made dark-gray colored leather jacket with a few red outlines making it have a very cool design.

"This is the last part of your outfit I made for you. You forgot to wear it on your way out. It's waterproof and made of very durable silk and high-quality leather. I hope you like it."

"I love it mom!" said Ash as he put it on and zipped the chain up. With his outfit now complete he looked quite impressive.

Cynthia got a blush on her face seeing the handsome boy's attractiveness sky rocket in the outfit and Delia noticed this reaction but did not comment on it, merely smiling. Internally though, she was planning to do a lot of teasing in the future.

Ash now picked up his back-pack which had a rolled up sleeping bag on top of it. "Now make sure to be careful, call regularly whenever you're in a town, wash your clothes, feed your cute little Pokémon, change your underwear, exercise daily, watch out for your head and most of all, have fun on your journey."

Ash had listened to every single word and nodded his head. "I will do everything you said mom. I love you!" Ash then embraced his mother and Cynthia smiled at the scene yet this smile was one of sadness but it disappeared quickly as it came.

"I love you too. I can't believe my baby boy is all grown up." Said Delia as she lightly sobbed on Ash's shoulder.

Ash patted his mom on her back and calmed her down before wiping her tears away. "None of that mom. Send me away on my journey with a smile not tears."

Delia wiped the remainder of her tears away and smiled at Ash after she regained her composure. "Your right. Now you take care and make sure to look after Cynthia here too."

"I will mom." Said Ash as Ignis and Raijin who had watched the scene with smiles on their faces hopped onto their trainer's shoulder

"Bye Ash. Bye Cynthia." Delia said as the two trainers began walking on the road that headed straight out of Pallet Town but they both heard one last statement from Delia.

"I hope both your dreams come true."

The two eventually found themselves on the edge of Pallet Town and Ash gave it one last look before he turned around and began walking alongside Cynthia.

However, after they took a few steps, they heard an engine roar behind them causing them to turn around. They saw Gary in a red open-roof car with quite a few girls in the car as well. The brown-haired boy got out of the car and walked over to Ash.

"Hey loser, let's have a battle, or are you too scared I'm going to wipe the floor with you." Mocked Gary as he took out a Poké Ball.

Ash sighed before looking at Cynthia. "Do you mind?"

"Of course not." Cynthia replied with a smile so Ash took off his back pack and stood about twenty feet away from Oak's grandson.

"You know, a hot girl like you should be with a talented trainer like me. Why don't you ditch that loser and come with me." Suggested Gary with a leer as he was highly attracted to the blonde goddess. Her beauty far out-classed any of his paid cheer-leaders.

"No thanks. I'm going to travel with Ash." Said Cynthia with a smile but she was beginning to get very irritated by the brown-haired kid.

"What's so special about him?!" Gary shouted as his jealousy of Ash kept growing. First Ash outclassed him and became a researcher, becoming world famous and now he was getting such a hot blonde girl to travel with him as well! "Maybe after I wipe the floor with this loser, you'll see that your better off with traveling with a talented trainer."

"Gary, are you going to battle or rant all day?" Ash sighed. He just didn't know how Gary turned out this way when he never ever said or did a single offensive thing to him. Ash suspected it was jealousy a long time ago but if that was the case how could he ever repair the brief friendship they shared?

"Anxious to get your ass handed to you loser? Well let me oblige, Squirtle time to battle!" shouted Gary as he launched his starter's Poké Ball into the air. In a flash of white energy, appeared a light blue turtle, with a shell that was brown on the top and pale yellow at the bottom. The water type stood on its two short legs and had his head held high showing his pride.

Ash surprisingly motioned Ignis for the battle while Pikachu jumped to the ground making Cynthia raise her eyebrows and her interest was now peaked at Ash's choice.

"Hah! Guess your title of Pokémon Professor is just for show! Don't you even know that a fire type is weak against a water type? Well whatever, its not like you can win regardless of what Pokémon you have!" shouted Gary.

Ash had been ignoring his former friend's banter as he had quickly brought out his black Pokédex and scanned Ignis and saw the list of moves he could use and was quite surprised at the list.

 **[Charmander knows the following moves: Dragon Dance, Ember, Scratch, Growl, Dragon Rush (currently unavailable)]**

Ash smiled at the move set and looked towards Gary who was seething at being ignored and thus decided to attack first.

"Squirtle, use Water Gun!"

The Tiny Turtle Pokémon's cheeks bloated a bit before it launched a small jet stream of water towards the fire type.

Ignis got temporarily frightened at the attack but Ash's voice quickly reached his ears. "Remain calm Ignis. Duck and roll to your left and use Dragon Dance."

Ignis heard his trainer's words and followed them and duck down, causing the jet of water to fly over him and rolled to the left. The Pokémon was then surrounded by a shin crimson and black aura, increasing his speed and physical attack power.

"Now use Scratch." Ordered Ash.

"Use Water Gun again!" shouted Gary angry that Squirtle's first attack missed

Before Squirtle could carry out his trainer's command, Ignis had already raced up to the water type and brought down his clawed arm across Squirtle's face, damaging him and sending him rolling backwards due to the increased power from Dragon Dance.

"Ember." Ash simple stated.

Ignis launched a small stream of red hot flames towards the downed Squirtle and while the water type's body was resistant to the attack, he was still dealt some damage.

"Get up Squirtle and use Tackle attack!" shouted Gary to which the water type shakily got up on his legs and raced towards the fire type.

Ash remained calm and when the water type was a few meters away from his Pokémon he gave his command. "Spin to your right and finish it with a Scratch attack."

Although it was a weird command, Ignis had placed a good amount of his trust in Ash and followed the order. Thanks to his increased speed, he managed to turn his body to the side at the last second, causing Squirtle's attack to miss. Ignis then used the momentum of his spin to bring down his left hand's claws on the back of Squirtle's head, dealing a lot of damage and instantly knocking the Pokémon out.

Both Gary and Ash realized this and he smiled and called Ignis over while Gary recalled his Pokémon, seething at the defeat.

"Good job, Ignis. I'm proud of you."

The fire type puffed out his chest in happiness at the compliment and his bond and trust for Ash increased to great lengths thanks to this one battle. Ignis did not have a good history with his previous trainer who physically abused him for not evolving in a few days and not being able to beat a huge Blastoise and hence sent him back to Professor Oak, saying he was completely worthless. While he had formed a close bond with Ash in the week he had been there, he had still been a bit cautious around the boy which slowly lessened and with this battle it faded completely.

"You got lucky this time loser, but I will beat you the next time we see each other. I'm going to be the strongest Pokémon trainer in the entire world, just you watch!" shouted Gary to which he hopped back into the car with the cheer leaders who were sad that Gary lost but Ash could clearly see they were faking their emotions.

The brown-haired kid drove off not noticing that Ash had not heard a single thing Gary had said as he was lost in his own thoughts.

Ash enjoyed this battle a lot. While he had never been fan of the idea of Pokémon hurting each other like that, he had learned from the Pokémon that fighting had been something they had done since the birth of Pokémon. It was something that came natural to them and hence Ash slowly accepted the idea. Now that he experienced the thrill of battling, he wanted more of it.

The crimson-eyed teen was broken out of his thoughts when Cynthia's melodious voice fell upon his ears. "That was an excellent battle Ash."

"Thank you." Said Ash. "Ignis deserves the credit."

"No offense to Ignis, but Ash it was your skilled commands that enabled a fire type like him to beat a water type like Squirtle." Had it been anyone else in your position, I doubt they would have the skill or intelligence to react fast enough and give clear cut commands and would probably have panicked under the pressure.

While Ignis was a bit deflated at the words, agreed whole heartedly at the fact that it was Ash's commands that caused him to win that battle.

"How did you learn to battle like that if this is your first day as a trainer?" asked Cynthia, very curious now.

Ash shrugged, "Just from watching Pokémon league battles, and the Pokémon in the Corral often engaged in mock battles with each other."

Cynthia was quite surprised that he was this good from just watching. It showed that he had great potential to become a very strong trainer. "You know, you should consider trying to compete in the Pokémon league by going for the gym badges. Your very skilled in battling and this will only help you get better."

Ash paused and thought about her words. He did in fact love battling just as much he loved physically fighting and pushing his body to the limits. Going for the Pokémon league might just well be the goal from him. Not only that but he would get to meet lots of Pokémon along the way as well with all the different trainers he would battle. "I'll think about it."

Cynthia nodded, satisfied Ash was taking her words into consideration.

Ash then picked up his back-pack and Ignis took his place on his free shoulder and the two Pokémon began conversing with each other, talking about the battle.

The two trainers then started walking towards their first destination which was Viridian City.

* * *

 **And Done!**

 **That is the first chapter of my Pokémon story.**

 **Regarding the nicknames of Ash's Pokémon, I did this so I could provide some uniqueness to his Pokémon and in the case of where his Pokémon battle another of the same species, it will be easier for me to distinguish between the two.**

 **Ignis means fire in latin**

 **Raijin is the Thunder god in the Shinto religion**

 **Please review the story and let me know your thoughts about it.**

 **Have a nice day!**


	2. Chapter 2: Goals, Bonds, and Battles

**Chapter 2: Goals, Bonds, and Battles**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! This story is for entertainment purposes and in no way am I trying to claim that I own Pokémon.**

 **Sorry for the long delay but I have been really busy with one mid-term or term test after the other non-stop for the past month. Not only that but finals are only a month away so things are going to get more hectic for me. But I will try my best to write whenever I can and continue with the updates.**

 **In regards to some questions in the reviews:**

 **Yes, all the regions will be in the story but I'm just not sure about Alola mainly because I haven't played sun and moon nor have I watched any episodes of the anime.**

 **My usual chapter length will be around 20k words or so.**

 **I know my nicknames are inconsistent but that's just how it will be. I am terrible at nicknames as you can see and I will choose names based on what sounds cool and will fit the type of character I will shape Ash's Pokémon to be.**

 **Regarding Legendary Pokémon. Remember I am not going by stats so their power will indeed be legendary and far surpass the powers of normal Pokémon. However, with enough training, normal Pokémon can reach the power of lesser legendaries but only after lots of intense training.**

 **Also, I have changed the limit of the Pokémon Ash catches to 18-24. Cynthia's will be most likely in this range as well.**

 **Well that's all I had to say. Enjoy the story!**

* * *

Ignis and Raijin were currently walking beside Ash and Cynthia, wanting to stretch their leg after they had sat on their trainer's shoulder for the past hour.

Meanwhile Ash was taking in the sights, sounds and smell of the nature around them, enjoying it and happy at the fact that his journey finally had begun. As they continued walking, his mind kept thinking about the battle he had with Gary and Cynthia's words afterwards. He really did like battling and was considering of perhaps going for the Pokémon league challenge.

As those thought crossed his mind, he also thought of what Pokémon Cynthia might have and decided to ask her. "Cynthia, if you don't mind me asking, what Pokémon do you have?"

Cynthia turned to look at Ash as they walked, a bit surprised at sudden question but quickly answered. "Well I have my starter, Gabite, and my other five Pokémon are Lucario, Roserade, Milotic, Spiritomb and Togekiss."

"Impressive."

"Thank you" Cynthia replied before asking her own question. "Do you have any Pokémon you specifically plan on catching?"

"Nope" Ash simply replied causing Cynthia to slightly sweat-drop at the nonchalant response. "By the way, why did you decide to come to Kanto?"

"Well Professor Rowan was coming here to help out Professor Oak for some big research project they were doing and he invited me along. I had been trying to decide what region to travel to next in order to grow stronger since I want to become the Sinnoh Champion and when Professor Rowan asked me I decided Kanto would be my next stop." Explained Cynthia to which Ash nodded.

Silence enveloped the two as they began walking again and it was only half-an hour later did they see a male brown-haired trainer in a blue-sweater and dark blue pants walking towards them. When the distance closed between them, the trainer challenged Ash to a one-on-one battle which he happily accepted.

"Let's go Rattata!" the trainer shouted as he threw a Poké Ball into the air releasing a purple rat-like Pokémon with buck-teeth and a tail that curled at the end.

"Raijin your up." Said Ash as he quickly scanned the electric type to check what moves he had since he had forgotten to do that earlier.

 **[Pikachu knows the following moves: Thunder Shock, Quick Attack, Growl, Reversal (Currently Unavailable), Volt Tackle (Currently Unavailable)]**

The electric type nodded, excited for his first battle especially since his belly was full and his body was healed thanks to the Oran Berry's healing properties.

"Start things off with a Tackle attack!" shouted the brown-haired trainer to which Rattata began running towards Raijin.

"Quick Attack."

Raijin was surrounded by a light white glow before he ran towards Rattata in a streak of white light and crashed into him, sending the charging Rattata skidding backwards due to the force behind Raijin's attack.

The brown-haired trainer grits his teeth upon seeing Rattata's attack being stopped and being hurt from the rather strong impact. "Use Bite!"

"Dodge it!"

As Rattata closed the distance between him and the electric type, baring his fangs at Raijin, getting ready to bite him, Raijin managed to run out of the way in time creating more distance between the two.

"Thunder Shock than Quick Attack!" commanded Ash.

Raijin launched a small jolt of electricity at the normal-type, dealing a good amount of damage and causing some of Rattata's fur to be charred. The electric type then was surrounded by a thin white glow before he launched himself at the weakened Rattata, eventually colliding with him. Rattata was sent rolling a few meters away and was unconscious.

The trainer sighed before returning his Pokémon and the Pokédex in his pocket beeped a little signalling that it transferred a small amount of his Poké dollar money into Ash's Pokédex.

"That was a good battle." Said Ash as Raijin jumped onto his vacant shoulder.

"Thanks. Maybe we can battle some day." Said the brown-haired trainer who although was upset by his loss, was equally impressed by Ash's battling skills and wanted to grow stronger to beat him.

"Maybe." Said Ash before he walked towards Cynthia and the brown-haired trainer turn and left to head back towards Pallet Town to get his Pokémon healed by Professor Oak.

"Nice battle." Commented Cynthia.

"Thank you. Do you want to battle the next trainer we come across?"

"No thanks. In these early routes, most trainers are beginners and my Pokémon would wipe the floor with them. Its better if your Pokémon earn as much experience as they can now. I will fight the more experienced trainers later on." Said Cynthia gaining a nod from Ash.

It was beyond obvious that if Cynthia managed to get into the top 4 of the Sinnoh League Conference then her Pokémon would wipe the floor with most trainers they came across.

"Although, you should battle if you catch any new Pokémon here, you should use them in battle since they would not be able to keep up with your experienced Pokémon." Said Ash.

"Of course."

The two then continued to walk and make their way towards Viridian City. They probably would have been almost near the city if Ash hadn't stopped to pretty much battle every single trainer they came across and beating them all although while a couple were easy, the majority were difficult causing him to using potions often after the battle to heal his Pokémon. The sun was now setting and the two trainers had now arrived in a small clearing near a pond.

"This will be a good place to camp for the night." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded and got to work of setting up her tent.

Ash set down his bag as well and brought out a small blanket to lay down his exhausted Pokémon that were resting on his shoulder, tired from the tremendous amount of battling they did but they and Ash loved it. Once they were peacefully resting their tired muscles and aching bones, Ash got up and walked towards the trees.

"I'm going to go look for firewood." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded, in the process of taking out her tent.

"Ok, I'll set up the fireplace."

Ash nodded in return and walked through the trees on the edge of the small clearing, looking for loose branches and dry leaves on the ground. He soon found a good cluster of them spread out in a small area and began picking them up as his mind drifted to his Pokémon.

Since he was beginning to love battling more and more, he also discovered that both Ignis and Raijin had an immense appetite for battling just like he did as they couldn't get enough. This fact more or less was making Ash believe that perhaps doing gym battles and aiming to enter the Indigo League would be the best short-term goal for him now.

However, to do this, he would not only need to catch more Pokémon of varying types to increase the size and diversity of his team, he would also need to train his Pokémon hard with their permission so that they could grow stronger and beat tougher opponents.

So, with that said, he began using his immense knowledge on Pokémon to determine what he should work on first in terms of training Ignis and Raijin. The one thing he knew that was the main weakness of Pokémon early on was their endurance and their ability to keep battling for a long while.

While Ignis and Raijin had already displayed quite a lot of endurance for participating in what was most likely around ten battles, he knew he needed to increase that amount so they could last longer in battles and just battle more overall which would result in gaining more experience.

With that small part thought of, Ash decided that he would talk to his Pokémon over dinner and then start their training early in the morning.

By the time he finished these thoughts, he had already picked up a large amount of firewood, and was making his way back to the clearing. When he made it there, he saw Cynthia was putting the last stone in its place among the circle of stones most likely picked up from the nearby pond. Ash walked over and placed a good amount of dry leaves and wooden branches and twigs in the circle before placing the rest a couple meters or so away from the fire place.

"Ignis, can you set the wood on fire?" asked Ash to which the Pokémon nodded and got up on his feet before walking over and using his tail to get the fire going.

Once that was done Ash got his tent out from his back-pack which unfolded very easily and required no ropes or poles to keep it up. He then placed his sleeping bag inside before getting out a group of various sandwiches his mom made.

"Here." Said Ash as he handed Cynthia a few of the sandwiches.

"Oh…thank you." Replied Cynthia as she had been just about to get her own food out but stopped.

She began unwrapping the plastic foil and took a bite out of one of them and instantly gained starry eyes with the delicious flavors of tuna and cheese that exploded in her mouth. "This is delicious!"

Ash chuckled. "Yeah, my mom is an amazing cook." He watched in amusement as Cynthia devoured the sandwiches he gave her with a somewhat lack of proper manners. He took out two bowls before bringing out a small cube which he recognized as the device his mom talked about that stored lots of Pokémon food.

He tapped the button on top before choosing two of the eighteen symbols on the top of the device, each symbol representing a specific type with another button on it if you wanted to combine types. Once he pressed the fire and electric symbol as separate types, a flash of white light came from the top button of the device and two huge sacks of Pokémon food appeared in front of him, one with the fire type symbol and the other with the electric type symbol.

Ash mentally thanked his mom for not only buy this device but filling it up with her hand-made Pokémon food for not only each Pokémon type but also each possible type combination. This food would probably last him for quite a few months more or less depending on how many Pokémon he captures after which he would have to stock up on more.

So, he took Ignis and Raijin's bowls and filled with their respective Pokémon food while also noticing there was mashed up berries mixed in. He then took out jars containing different brown colored mush, and mixed in a spoonful of protein, calcium, and carbos into each of their bowls before mixing their food and placing in front of his Pokémon who were still lying down.

When the aroma of the food hit their noses, the two Pokémon got up and sniffed the food slightly before taking one piece of it and eating it. Like Cynthia, the two Pokémon gained starry eyes as they started devouring the food like a starving Snorlax causing Ash to smile.

With that done, he packed everything up and the bags of Pokémon food returned inside the cube in a flash of white energy. Ash then took out his own sandwiches and began eating somewhat quickly. He noticed Cynthia had not taken her Pokémon out to eat so he spoke up. "Aren't you going to bring out your Pokémon to eat as well Cynthia?"

She shook her head. "When we landed in Kanto last night, I gave my Pokémon a big feast and most of them typically only eat every three to four days. By the way, thanks for the delicious food. When we return to Kanto, I'm going to have to ask your mom for her recipe."

Ash nodded first then chuckled. "You don't have to wait until then. She taught me her cooking and her recipes so once we get to Viridian and pick up some supplies, I will make something."

"You can cook!" exclaimed Cynthia receiving a nod from Ash. It was quite rare to see a boy or teenager in this case who can cook and if his cooking is as good as he says, she knew she was in the time of her life on this journey. After all, the one thing she likes after Pokémon and battling is eating.

Ash and his Pokémon finished his meal before he went to wash his Pokémon's bowl in the nearby pond. After, wards he came back, placed it in his bag and sat beside his Pokémon on the ground, opposite of Cynthia on the other side of the fire.

"Cynthia, Ignis, Raijin…" Ash started gaining the attention of the three, "I wanted to say that for now I set my short-term goal to be going for the Indigo League. However, for us to do that, we're going to have to train really hard in order to beat all the gyms. I wanted to ask you Ignis, Raijin if your okay with this and if you would be willing to train really hard by my side."

Ignis and Raijin stood up and walked in front of Ash and had determination burning in their eyes. They nodded at him and Ignis spoke up.

("I want to become the strongest Charizard in the world!")

("I want to become strong and help you with your dream!") Raijin added.

Ash nodded at the two before petting their heads causing them to melt to his touch since he knew their favourite spots to be petted and scratched. "Ok then. Tomorrow, we can begin your training. The first thing we need to work on is your endurance so we will be doing a lot of running."

The two nodded while Cynthia watched the scene with a warm smile. It was very rare to see someone place such high value in their Pokémon's opinion and actually listen to what they wanted and not just force their goals on them. It was one of the things her grandmother and Professor Rowan had taught her and she followed it to the letter. It was clear to her that Ash simply loved Pokémon and it was quite the warming sight to see.

"You know, your going to need a strategy for Brock's gym in Pewter City since he's a rock type specialist. The Viridian City gym is the strongest in Kanto so we should probably face it last." Said Cynthia pointing out some important points.

"Yes. I'm going to have to try and teach Ignis Metal Claw which would help out a lot against Rock Types. I believe Raijin can learn Iron Tail too so that's something I can have them both work on after they improve their endurance a bit."

"Yes. My Lucario and Milotic knows those moves so they will be able to help Ignis and Raijin out."

"Thank you, Cynthia." Said Ash with a smile, finding it heart-warming how kind the blonde woman is, willing to help him out.

"Its no problem Ash." Said Cynthia with a small smile, find herself enraptured by Ash's handsome face, alluring crimson eyes and amazing smile.

Ash himself had found himself lost in Cynthia's silver colored eyes and beautiful face. He eventually managed to recompose himself and cleared his throat, breaking the blonde-woman out of her stupor as well. "We should get some sleep now."

Cynthia nodded in response and went inside her black-colored tent while Ash went inside his blue colored one after he doused the fire. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Ash responded back as he fell asleep in his sleeping bag with Ignis and Raijin right beside him, snuggling as close as possible.

* * *

Ash heard small chirping sounds and felt a cool breeze on his face. He opened his eyes and saw Ignis and Raijin were sleeping right next to him, snoring lightly. He stretched his body and rubbed his eyes a little, chasing away the last bit of his sleepiness before he slowly crawled out of the tent making sure not to wake his Pokémon up. After that, Ash grabbed his brush and some toothpaste and went by the pond to do his normal morning rituals before walking back and talking off his shirt and placing it by his sweater/vest and his gray leather jacket inside his tent.

He then walked to the edge of the small clearing and started running around the perimeter while also barely making a sound so none of his Pokémon or the Pokémon living in the surrounding forest woke up. As he ran he felt a strange power surging within him and it's a power he felt running through his body for as long as he can remember. While not knowing what exactly it is he felt some sort of control over it and often could use it to speed himself up which is what he decided to do now.

As he felt the power course through his legs, his speed began to pick up as he ran at an astounding speed of 35 mph. He could feel the wind hitting against his body as he ran and ran, pushing his endurance to the limit everyday. By the time one hour was done, he slowly, slowed down until eventually stopping and collapsing on the ground with his arms and legs spread out. He could feel the muscles in his leg burning like they were on fire and his whole body was sweating heavily as he had pushed himself a lot today. This was the first time he was able to maintain his top speed of running 35 mph for an hour.

The exhaustion that plagued his body just felt so…so…great.

After non-stop panting and an effort to catch his breath, Ash slowly pushed himself back on his feet after taking a twenty-minute break. Since he had no weights or any sort of training equipment, he decided to do some basic stretches first before doing all variation of push-ups and sit-ups, along with several leg-exercises, variations of two and one-handed pull-ups on a nearby tree before finishing with simple breathing exercises. This whole process, including running had taken a total of two and a half hours to complete and by this point it was 8:30 a.m.

So as a final part of his daily exercise routine, Ash started going over all the fighting moves and exercises Machamp and several other fighting type Pokémon had taught him when they had seen how he was able to hold his own against fighting the skilled Machamp despite the fact that Machamp was holding back on his strength.

He went through several fighting stances and did all sorts of punches, kicks and strange fighting moves as if he was fighting against a real opponent yet through the whole time, his eyes were closed.

Unknown to him, his Pokémon and Cynthia had both awaken a few minutes ago and were watching him with awed eyes. Cynthia also sported a crimson blush that encompassed her face as she gazed at Ash's hot and ripped body that would have had any woman falling for him. The fact that he was sweating causing his body to glisten in the sunlight did not help one bit, as it added even more fuel to her atomic blush.

Once Ash was done with going through all his moves, he walked over to a tree that didn't have many leaves and thus probably no Pokémon. He then began attacking the tree with punches and kicks non-stop and adding in several moves in the process. He became so lost in his training that he didn't realize that his punches were gaining more ferocity and he was slowly losing himself in the fighting.

While this was going on, Cynthia watched with wide eyes as she could swear she was seeing parts of Ash's body being outlined by a crimson red aura but it usually ended up disappearing so fast that she was not sure what to think.

Meanwhile, as Ash began to lose himself in beating up the poor tree, he did not realize that the surrounding forest Pokémon had also begun to watch him and were captivated by his beautiful flawless moves that absolutely wasted no movement and had perfect form, minimizing energy usage while maximizing the power, speed and ferocity of his attacks.

Eventually, Ash reached a peak and he channeled the unknown power within him one last time inside his right arm before clenching his hand into a tight fist. He then brought down the punch full force onto the tree. The moment contact was made between flesh and tree, a huge shockwave blasted throughout the surrounding area causing all the Pokémon and Cynthia to stumble a bit as they looked at Ash with shocked eyes.

Their shock only grew when they saw the tree toppling over and it was not a small tree by any means as it had been two meters in diameter and eight meters tall. The tree soon hit the ground resulting a large blast of sound and dust to be released.

Ash panted heavily as he brought his bruised by surprisingly un-bleeding arms down to his side and relaxed himself. He came out of his fight crazed state and managed to eventually regain his composure causing him to notice many of the forest Pokémon looking at him with awe-filled eyes with just the slightest ting of fear. He breathed heavily as that last punch felt like it drained almost all the energy inside him and he was more then ready to just lay down and relax the rest of the day. Once he managed to get his breathing under control he look at the slack-jawed forest pokemon

It was not everyday you saw a human do something like that.

"I apologize if I disturbed you all." Said Ash with a sincere bow before he walked back to his tent leaving the dumbfounded Pokémon behind. When Ash made it back to the campsite which had been a few meters away, he saw Cynthia, Ignis, and Raijin with their jaws comically on the ground. "What?"

"W-W-What the hell was that?!" exclaimed Cynthia waving her arms to emphasize the point as any and all embarrassment at having an extremely hot, shirtless and ripped man in front of her gone. She had seen Pokémon do amazing things but never a person do something like that. Hell, many Pokémon didn't have the strength to topple a tree of that height and thickness over.

Ash looked back to where Cynthia was waving her arms towards and saw the fallen tree. "Oh that…I was just training. Sorry if I woke you up."

"T-T-Training?!" said the blonde-beauty in an unbelieving tone.

Ash simply nodded his head before turning towards his Pokémon and he saw that they were still staring at him with shocked eyes. He began waving his arm in front of them an called out to them. After a few minutes, they eventually managed to regain all the sense they had lost in the past few minutes and looked at their trainer.

("How did you do that?") asked the electric type.

"Oh, I have been training with Professor Oak's Machamp since I was like seven or so. I also learned from different fighting types that came into the Corral from other trainers too. Plus, Machamp are masters of nearly if not all form of martial arts there are." Explained Ash to which a dumbfounded Raijin and Ignis nodded their heads.

"They taught you how to fight like that?" asked Cynthia who was still having trouble processing what she both saw and heard.

"Yes. Machamp trained me in my technique first before focusing on my body. After that, we just did regular sparring sessions to keep my skills sharp…although I never had this much strength before." Said Ash while flexing his hands and looking at the fallen tree behind him. "Anyways, we can talk about this later today. I want to get some training in for my Pokémon and I'm really, really tired after that."

Cynthia looked into his crimson eyes with her silver ones and gave him a look that she would be getting answers regardless as her curiosity about wanting to learn more about the strange person that was Ash Ketchum. She then nodded and went to do her morning rituals while Ash who got the message, motioned Ignis and Raijin to come with him so that they can begin their training.

Once they were a good distance away, Ash looked at his two Pokémon. "Alright, the main way to increase your endurance is by running so you two should try to run non-stop for as long as you can around the clearing."

The two Pokémon nodded in response and followed their trainer's orders and began running around the clearing. Since he had a little time for himself, he decided to take a nap as that training session had left him extremely exhausted which was quite surprising. His endurance was quite high but for some reason when he poured a lot of his unknown power into that last punch, he felt so weak afterwards. The extreme running, he did in the morning had drained him quite a lot because of that strange unknown power he felt but that one last punch felt even more tiring. These were the last thoughts that ran through his head before he felt sleep overcome him.

Around four hours later, Ash felt a nudge by his head which caused him to groan as his eyes slowly fluttered open, his grogginess slowly leaving him, although he still felt physically tired. Once his vision slowly became clear, he saw that it was Ignis and Raijin that had woke him up.

"It's good to see you awake. You slept like a rock." Commented Cynthia in a somewhat amused voice yet it still held concern in it. "Are you alright now?"

Ash nodded his head. "Yes. Thanks for asking."

"You know, Ignis and Raijin are just like you. They test their endurance by running as fast and as long as they could and went on for over an hour before they collapsed and slept like a log just like you. They just woke up twenty minutes ago." Explained Cynthia with some awe in her voice seeing how hard Ash and his Pokémon were pushing themselves. It made the seemingly harsh training they did seem mild in comparison. Not in terms of intensity or power but just how much they pushed themselves beyond their limit.

Ash looked at his two Pokémon with a proud smile causing them to have sheepish yet pride-filled smiles. "I'm proud of you two." He patted their heads before slowly getting up on his two feet and dusting the dirt off of his clothes. "I'm going freshen up."

"I'll prepare some of the canned soup I brought for lunch." Said Cynthia.

As the two trainers left to do their tasks, Ignis and Raijin followed Ash to freshen up a bit as well, while Cynthia called out all her Pokémon since she felt it was high time she introduced them to Ash. If things go well, she would be traveling with him for a long time so might as well have all her Pokémon acquainted with him right off the bat.

Once Ash was done, he came back to the clearing and saw a cluster of Pokémon sitting and chatting behind Cynthia who had started a fire from the firewood and dry leaves he had brought yesterday and was heating up some soup in a pot. Ash's eyes analyzed the Pokémon behind her, and were amazed at how well trained and healthy they looked. They also had a couple scars on their bodies showing the many battles they must have gone through. Ignis and Raijin looked at the Pokémon warily though mostly due to the powerful aura they radiated.

Cynthia noticed Ash coming towards her and stood up while lightly whistling to call her Pokémon over and they responded immediately. "Everyone, I would like you to meet Ash and his Pokémon Ignis and Raijin. They are going to be traveling with us through Kanto so say hi."

Cynthia's Gabite, Milotic, Spiritomb, Roserade, Togekiss all roared in response, giving Ash and his Pokémon their own greetings. However, Lucario just gazed at Ash before he began slowly walking over to him. All the cheering died down as everyone looked at the Pokémon with confused eyes while Ignis and Raijin were on guard but a small whisper from Ash caused them to relax slightly.

Ash met Lucario's gaze as they simply gazed into each other's eyes. Soon enough, Lucario stood right in front of Ash and the two continued their staring contest while everyone watched while holding their breaths.

Ash could feel something within him. It was strange but as he gazed into Lucario's eyes, he could feel himself understanding the Pokémon a bit more despite the fact that there were no words exchanged between them. It was similar to Lucario as he could understand Ash more as time passed while also discovering something unique about him.

After around twenty seconds which was an eternity for everyone except Ash and Lucario, the two grinned at each other before the fighting-steel type walked back to his trainer's side.

"What was that about?" asked Cynthia.

"Just getting to know each other that's all." Said Ash with a smile although he was also confused as to what had happened and why he felt like he could understand Lucario so much by just staring into his eyes and being close to him. He knew Lucario had the power to manipulate aura which almost no other Pokémon could do but how would that explain this strange temporary connection he felt with him.

Cynthia and all the other Pokémon exchanged confused glances with each other, not sure of what to say. Eventually the blonde broke the silence. "The soup should be ready soon."

Cynthia's voice broke him out of his thoughts as he looked at her and nodded before he prepared Pokémon food for his Pokémon while Cynthia's Pokémon who were not hungry, decided to walk away from the campsite to get some training in.

As his Pokémon started eating, Cynthia placed a bowl full of the soup in front of Ash before taking her seat a meter in front of him.

"So, after we're done lunch, I can ask Lucario and Milotic to help out Ignis and Raijin learn their respective steel type moves."

Ash nodded his head as he continued to eat the rather good soup and chew on the pieces of vegetable and chicken that came into his mouth. "By the way, did you make his soup?" Ash asked after a few minutes had passed.

"Yes. Its my grandma's own recipe but I could never get it as good as her. I made it when I arrived in Kanto." Said Cynthia.

"Its quite good. If you don't mind, can you teach me the recipe?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

Cynthia nodded her head back in response as the two continued to eat before finishing and then washing the dishes. After that, the two went and got some intense training done.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia were currently walking on the dirt road path, nearing Viridian City while Ignis and Raijin along with Lucario who requested to stay outside, walked beside their trainers.

Ignis and Raijin's training in learning their respective steel-type moves had gone quite well as they had been training their respective arms and tail by lifting the rocks found near the pond. After that, Lucario and Milotic had taught Ignis and Raijin as best they could and by the end of yesterday Ash had seen their respective appendages glowing a light silverish color showing that they were in fact close to learning the move.

Other then that, Cynthia had trained her Pokémon by going over their moves and having them engage in mock battles with each other which Ash observed very carefully and took down some pointers. Afterwards, Ash and Cynthia had conversed about Ash's training and exactly how Ash managed to knock down such a large tree although the conversation was short since Ash didn't know either. Although, some questions did arise when Cynthia had mentioned that she had seen Ash's various body parts outlined by a thin crimson glow, especially his right arm at the end although his Pokémon didn't see it.

They set the questions to the back of their mind as the two trainers had completed the training for the day and had decided to get to Viridian City today and complete Ignis and Raijin's steel type move training at the Pokémon center before they made their way to Pewter City.

So, once they had set off, Ash told Ignis and Raijin that it would be best if they try to walk beside them to increase their endurance through long bits of traveling and they happily agreed while Lucario requested to walk beside them as well.

Along the way, Ash had faced numerous trainers again, beating them all with his Pokémon although he faced a bit less difficulty this time around. Because of this, they had been slightly delayed in reaching Viridian City as it was around 7:00 p.m. but nevertheless they were now only around a half-an hour's walk away from the it.

As the two trainers continued walking, Ash noticed an orange-haired girl who had her hair tied in a pony tail and was wearing a yellow tank-top and jean shorts with a red strap connected to her shorts, going over her shoulders and a couple Poké Balls attached to her waist. She was placing some items in the front basket of her bicycle and Ash decided to get one last battle in before they make it to Viridian City. Plus, he could see Raijin was itching to get one last battle in as well while Ignis had battled a little more then Raijin so was a bit tired.

"Hey!" Ash called out catching the orange-haired girls attention while Cynthia merely smiled seeing how much Ash liked battling.

He probably liked it more then her.

The girl looked at the two trainers while her cheeks took a slight pink-tint upon seeing the boy. "What is it?"

"Want to have a battle?"

"Sure. One on one." The girl grinned, upon the chance of showing off her Pokémon to this rather cute boy.

Ash nodded at the conditions and immediately motioned Raijin to go in. The Pokémon nodded his head and jumped in front of Ash while the girl lost her grin upon seeing the electric type but nevertheless released her Pokémon.

A brown star-shaped Pokémon that had a gold exterior with a red jewel in the center similar to madreporite appeared on the field in a flash of white energy.

"You can have the first move." Ash said.

"You're going to regret that." said the orange-haired girl with a confident grin. "Staryu, use Water Gun!"

The water type released a small echoing grunt before it bent its top appendage so that the tip faced Raijin before it fired a thin yet powerful stream of water.

"Quick Attack."

Raijin immediately followed his trainer's command as he was surrounded by a thin white veil of energy before running towards the water type in a streak of white light. Raijin stepped to the side, dodging the water gun before quickly closing the distance between him and his opponent and then ramming his body into Staryu. This sent the water type tumbling backwards and a small bruise near his red jewel.

"Staryu, get up and use Rapid Spin!" The girl commanded in slight panic.

"Thunder Shock."

As the star-shaped Pokémon started spinning rapidly and approached Raijin, said Electric type launched a thin stream of electricity from the red spots on its cheek. The electricity made contact with the water type and sent hundreds of volts throughout her body, causing Staryu to screech in pain as burnt marks covered parts of her body.

Ash saw that water-type was on its last legs and decided to end it. "Quick Attack."

Pikachu was once again surrounded by a thin white veil of energy before he disappeared in a streak of white light and rammed his body into Staryu, right on the red jewel. This instantly knocked the water type out, causing the red jewel to continuously flash red.

Raijin returned to Ash's side and jumped on his shoulder nuzzling his cheeks against the trainer. "Great job Raijin."

("Thanks!") replied the electric type.

Ash heard the familiar beep coming from the Pokédex in his jacket's pocket signalling the money transfer. He then turned to the defeated girl who had just returned her water-type and had a small frown on her face.

"That was a good battle. I hope to face you again in the future."

The orange-haired girl looked at him her frown slightly disappearing. "I look forward to it." She then got on her bike and drove off in the direction behind Ash and Cynthia.

"Let's go." Said Ash after a short moment to which his Pokémon and Cynthia nodded.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia looked at the big houses and small buildings of Viridian City as they slowly made their way to the Pokémon center. However, they both noticed the lack of people on the streets which was surprising. Viridian City was nowhere as big as Saffron City but still fairly large and would usually be teeming with people and Pokémon despite it being 8:00 p.m.

"You two, STOP!" shouted a feminine voice causing the two trainers to stop dead in their tracks.

They turned around and saw a woman in her late twenties with greenish-blue colored hair tied in two spiky pig tails with a small strand of hair coming over her left brown eye. She wore a standard police outfit consisting of a blue mid-thigh length skirt, a standard blue police top and a blue cap with a triangular golden emblem on it.

Ash and Cynthia instantly recognized the woman as Officer Jenny since her and Nurse Joy's case of having hundreds of look alike family members spread throughout all the regions were quite well known. Although it was a big mystery as to how hundreds of them can look so similar to each other.

"Who are you and what is your business in this city?" asked Officer Jenny in a fierce tone.

Ash and Cynthia got confused looks at fierce tone and why they were stopped when they weren't doing anything wrong or even remotely suspicious.

"We're trainers. We're just traveling through Viridian City on our way to Pewter City." Explained Ash in a calm and cool tone.

As Officer Jenny got a good look at the two, she blushed upon seeing Ash but managed to supress it before it could become prominent on her face. "I'm going to need to see your ID."

The two trainers nodded and handed Officer Jenny their Pokédex. The police officer took it before looking through the white Pokédex given to her and read over Cynthia's identity before nodded and handing the Pokédex back to her. She then looked through Ash's black Pokédex and as she scanned through the information her eyes widened.

"Y-You're a Pokémon professor!?" exclaimed Jenny. She knew and heard about the supposed Professor Ketchum who managed to earn the title of Pokémon professor at the age of ten but it was hard to believe at that time. Now seeing him in front of her with proof left her at a loss for words.

"Yes." Ash simply replied with a nod as he took back his Pokédex from the dumbfounded Jenny. "Can we please go now?"

This got Jenny to break out of her stupor and nodded her head. "Yes, but before you go, I have to warn you to be careful. There have been Pokémon thieves sighted in the area and we suspect they are members of Team Rocket. Keep a sharp eye out."

Ash's eyes widened upon the mention of the criminal organization. He had heard about them plenty of times and the horrible deeds they committed to both people and Pokémon. Cynthia's eyes had also widened but mainly because it reminded her of the criminal organization back in her home region of Sinnoh, Team Galactic. She had only two small encounters with the organizations grunts and hearing about another organization in Kanto as well, made her blood boil slightly.

The two nodded before they turned around and walked towards the Pokémon Center which was visible a few blocks ahead. Silence enveloped the two as they were too lost in their own thoughts and before they knew it, they reached their destination and entered the distinct red-roofed building with a red cross sign plastered at the top.

"Hello and welcome to the Pokémon Center! How may I help you?" greeted a cheerful voice breaking the two trainers out of their thoughts and making them realize they were standing inside the Pokémon Center in front of the counter. They saw a woman in her early twenties with dark pink hair tied in two loop pig-tails. She wore a white hat with a red cross on it, a pink knee-length dress with a white apron on top and white shoes.

"Hello Nurse Joy. Can you please look over our Pokémon." Asked Ash as he handed his two Poké Balls to the Nurse since both Ignis and Raijin had been exhausted and wanted to rest and Raijin did not even seem bothered this time around about going inside his Poké Ball despite his dislike for them.

Cynthia gave her six Poké Balls to Nurse Joy as well and said woman placed all the Poké Balls in two separates that each held six Poké Balls.

"I will check up and heal up your Pokémon. They should be good to go by tomorrow morning. So, is there anything else I can help you with?"

Cynthia nodded her head. "Can you please register us for the Indigo League."

"Of course. Can I please have your Pokédex." The two nodded in response and handed her their Pokédex.

"Also, Nurse Joy, can you please keep your voice down when you see my data." Said Ash getting a confused look from the Pokémon nurse.

"Why do you need to keep my…" Nurse Joy said before she glanced at her computer screen that displayed Cynthia and Ash's information and it revealed how he was a Pokémon Professor. A shocked look overcame her face for a few moments before she managed to regain her composure. "I see. Its quite the accomplishment. I'm glad to have met you." Whispered Nurse Joy to which Ash smiled and nodded.

She then typed some stuff on the computer before taking out the Pokédexs from the computer and handing them back to Ash and Cynthia. "Alright, you are both registered for the Indigo league. You will need a total of eight badges to compete. At least four of them must be from the main gyms while the remainder can be any of the lesser gyms."

"Thank you. Can you also please give us two rooms for the night.".

"Sure. Here are your keys. You are in rooms 102 and 103. Have a great day." Said Nurse Joy as she handed one key to both trainers.

Both gave their thanks to the Pokémon nurse before they made their way to their room which were on the ground floor and near the beginning of the hall. Once they arrived at their respective set of doors, the two trainers looked at each other.

"Let's freshen up and meet at the cafeteria for dinner." Said Cynthia.

Ash nodded in response before they went inside their rooms and got prepared for a nice long hot shower.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia were both sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria, right beside a window. The majority of the tables were empty as everyone most likely hit the sack.

The two trainers were happily chowing down on some delicious chicken and steamed vegetables along with spicy bean soup and were engaged in a conversation.

"So, how did you become a Pokémon Professor? Was it a goal your aiming for or…" asked Cynthia in a curious tone as she continued to eat but making sure to speak only after chewing and swallowing.

Ash chuckled a bit, become rather used to Cynthia's presence and thus finding the uncomfortableness he usually felt around someone he didn't know fading away almost completely by this point after having spent the past couple days around her. "Being a Professor was never a goal. Honestly, I just wanted to learn about Pokémon when I was little so I asked my mom when I was six to teach me about them. She then asked Professor Oak and from their I just began learning and learning. Eventually I fulfilled the requirements and I got the title. I guess when you do something you love, silly things like titles and fame don't matter."

Cynthia nodded at that, smiling and nodding at what he said. "That is true. I love Pokémon as well and just love battling. I guess that's why I didn't feel upset that I lost at the Sinnoh League Conference but rather felt proud. I learned a lot from competing their and I couldn't have asked for anything more."

Ash smiled upon hearing the passion in her tone. "Its nice to meet someone who loves Pokémon just as much as me."

"Yes, it is." Cynthia said in response.

"What is your dream by the way?" asked Ash as he never did get to know what her goal was.

"My dream…well at first I wanted to be the strongest trainer in the world. Power is all the mattered to me but as I continued my journey through Sinnoh, I found out just how much I loved Pokémon and how I wanted to learn more about them. I still want to be the strongest, not for recognition or anything but…I don't know. It's hard to describe." Cynthia explained finishing the last bit a little awkwardly.

Ash found her awkwardness in the end quite cute but didn't realize what he had thought. "I understand."

"You do?"

"Yes. You want to be strong for yourself…and for your Pokémon." Said Ash in a low tone while gazing into her eyes. Cynthia's eyes widened in response when she heard the words that came out of Ash's mouth and felt her breath get caught into her throat as her gaze met his.

At first Ash's words just sounded simple but from the look he was giving her, it was as if he could see something. Something that she long since buried. He couldn't know, could he?

"Y-Yeah…that's pretty much it." Said Cynthia breaking the silence and their long gaze at each other, not able to see his crimson eyes dig so deep into her soul any longer.

"I mean, I learned everything possible about Pokémon because I just wanted to learn about them. I started this journey for the sole purpose to meet as many Pokémon as I can but after battling, I found that I just love it and want to do it a lot more and my Pokémon want the same thing. I guess that will be my goal from now on. To battle as much as possible and meet as many Pokémon as I can." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded with a small smile.

"You know, you're the first person I met that understands and thinks the way I do."

"It's the same case with me to you." Said Ash with a small smile.

A comfortable silence enveloped them as the unknown tension that had sprung forth mainly from Cynthia's side having long since dissipated. The two finished the last of their meal enjoying the various flavours in their mouths, the warm temperature of the soup and the feeling of having their bellies completely full.

The two then got up and placed their empty trays on the cafeteria's front counter before they washed their hands in the nearby sinks. Soon they were headed back towards their room to sleep for the night but just as they entered the main area of the Pokémon center, a round piece of concrete dropped a few feet in front of them before a purple round Pokémon with several geyser-like protrusions all around its body. The Pokémon then released black colored smoke from the protrusions which quickly enveloped the entire surrounding area, including Ash and Cynthia.

"That's Smokescreen!" exclaimed Cynthia as she and Ash covered their mouths and noses to minimize the amount of smoke that entered their lungs.

"Let's go!" said Ash as he grabbed Cynthia's hand and ran away from the smoke, eventually getting out of its range.

Once they exited the field of smoke, they coughed a bit and breathed heavily to get the smoke out of their lungs. After a few minutes, they stopped and looked back at the field of smoke which was slowly dissipating.

"What's going on?" asked Cynthia but not expecting an answer.

The two watched with wary eyes as they saw the smoke eventually dissipate revealing the laughing figures of a blue-haired man and a long magenta-haired woman. They both wore a white shirt and white pants or skirt along with black boots. In between them was a cream-colored feline Pokémon with long feet and a tail that curled into a spiral at the end.

Beside them was the same purple round Pokémon that had released smoke screen earlier along with a purple snake Pokémon with yellow eyes and black slit pupils, a cream-colored underbelly and a rattle-snake like tail.

"STOP NOW THIEVES! YOU CAN'T TAKE THOSE POKEMON!" said the familiar figure of Nurse Joy who was standing a few meters in front of the two people and three Pokémon.

"To protect this world from devastation!" said the magenta haired-woman, ignoring Nurse Joy.

"To unite all people within our nation!" said the blue-haired man who was holding a rose in one hand, in front of his face

The two began alternating between their nonsensical lines.

"To denounce the…"

Ash stopped paying attention to whatever crap the two people were spewing out because he as well as Cynthia noticed the rather large brown colored sack in front of them and within it they could see several Poké Balls and they had heard Nurse Joy's shout loud and clear.

"Ash…"

"I see it. Since we don't have any of our Pokémon, I'll have to try and stop them." Said Ash as he bent his knees a little, feeling the unknown power within him and directing it towards his legs like he did every morning when he ran.

Cynthia looked at him with wide-eyes. "How…"

She didn't get the chance to complete her sentence as she saw a familiar faint crimson outline on Ash's legs before he ran towards the figures in the fastest sprint she has ever seen.

As Ash launched himself towards the two people who were thankfully facing away from him, he quickly decided that it would be best if he could just hit the trainers and take the bag full of Poké Balls before getting out.

So, with that in mind Ash quickly closed the distance between him and the Pokémon thieves and their Pokémon. As he neared he saw Ekan's twitching a little most likely due to sensing him, and he was turning his head. However, by the time the purple snake full turned his head, Ash was already immediately behind the man and woman who were still in the middle of saying…whatever the hell they were saying.

"Team Rocket will blast off…" Jessie and James said before they felt a powerful force hit the back of their heads, sending them face first into the floor at a tremendous speed. Eventually upon impact a large crunching sound was heard.

In that moment Ash had already grabbed the Poké Ball bag and was more or less by Cynthia's side in the time it took for the man and woman to hit the floor and for their brains to process what just happened.

"YEOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Two high-pitched screams were heard throughout the entire Pokémon center and quite possibly the surrounding blocks, practically waking up everyone in the area. Jessie and James were clutching their badly broken noses as a trickle of blood flowed out of them and they were very crooked signalling that the bones were broken from the harsh impact.

"Jessie! James!" exclaimed Meowth as he ran to his fallen comrades who were too lost in their pain to hear or see anything.

The Meowth then heard Ekans hissing and turned around to see a raven-haired teen kneeling beside a blonde-haired teen, searching through the bag of Poké Balls they had stolen, with their respective Pokédex's, no doubt trying to locate the Poké Balls with their Pokémon.

"You! Youse two did this?!" exclaimed Meowth in anger.

Ash and Cynthia just found their Poké Balls when Meowth shouted at them causing them to look up and their mouths to widen as they now got a good look and saw that the Pokémon was actually speaking.

The fascination only lasted a few seconds as the Meowth yelled again, this time commanding the Ekans and Koffing to attack them with Poison Sting and Tackle Attack.

"Ignis! Raijin! Use Ember and Thunder Shock Attack!"

"Gabite use Dragon Pulse!"

The two trainers commanded as they launched their Poké Balls into the air. The Pokémon materialized in a flash of white energy before they launched their respective attacks.

The thin stream of flames and electricity easily overpowered the barrage of sharp needles filled with poison that was launched at them while the green sphere of draconic energy exploded when it made contact with the incoming Koffing, causing a rather loud and powerful explosion. This sent the Koffing flying backwards and directly into the crotch of the blue haired man who had turned around on the ground and was still clutching his nose in pain but that did not last long.

The moment Koffing made impact with the man's crotch all air left his lungs as his body shot upwards, all pain of his nose leaving him as a new, much more intense and excruciating pain filled his body.

In that same moment the thin stream of flames and electricity had made contact with Ekans, pushing the poison type into Jessie and shocking and burning her slightly while her hair caught on fire at the tip. A small trickle of the flames and electricity made contact with the combustible gas that Koffing expelled upon impacting James' crotch who's mind finally caught up with what just happened.

A large explosion occurred, blasting Team Rocket and their Pokémon out of the Pokémon Center's roof at the speed of light as James' very, very high-pitched scream was heard for miles.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Every male in the Pokémon center and in the surrounding blocks instinctively held their family jewels upon hearing the scream. They prayed and pitied for the poor soul that had to experience such suffering and could only hope that they never encountered the person who crushed a man's family jewels with such brutality to incite such a pain-filled scream.

Meanwhile, back in the Pokémon Center, Ash who was carrying the bag of Poké Balls, Cynthia and their Pokémon ran over to Nurse Joy.

"Are you two alright?!" Nurse Joy asked worriedly since she expected them to be injured after that rather powerful explosion that made a dent in the Pokémon Center's floor in the area of detonation and blew a hole in the ceiling.

"Don't worry, we're fine and all the Pokémon those thieves stole are right here. Who were they anyway?" said Ash to which Cynthia nodded in confirmation at the explanation and question.

"That's good. Those people…I think they were apart of Team Rocket. They had a big R on their chest and said something about Team Rocket in their jumble."

Ash and Cynthia internally growled at the criminal organizations name. They wanted nothing more than to remove those scum and place them behind bars where they can never do any harm but at the moment, picking a fight with them especially when they were considered as the largest and most dangerous criminal organization in the world, was suicide.

Ash quickly broke out of his line of thoughts and handed Nurse Joy the sack of Poké Balls filled with Pokémon various trainers had left here. "Here Nurse Joy. You should make sure they are alright."

Just as Nurse Joy was about to leave with the sack of poke balls, a squad of Officer Jenny's all of them looking identical to each other except for one, who's uniform was a bit darker and the emblem on her head was different. Most likely the commanding officer.

"What's going on here!" the supposed commanding officer shouted

Nurse Joy quickly gave her and the group of Officer Jenny an explanation as to what had happened.

"I see. Well I'm glad all of you and the Pokémon are safe. We had intel that Team Rocket had been in the area but we couldn't find them anywhere." Said the commanding Officer Jenny before turning towards Ash and Cynthia. "While that was a very foolish and reckless thing you two did, good job on stopping Team Rocket. Just be careful in the future. You don't want to mess with the likes of them."

Ash and Cynthia nodded. "We understand." Said the two in unison.

"You kids should get some rest. We'll be staying here for the night and keeping a lookout in case they decide to come back. We'll have to ask you some questions in the morning regarding the details of the incident. Until then, you or any person in the Pokémon Center will not be able to leave the area without our express permission."

Both Ash and Cynthia along with Nurse Joy nodded at this before they left to do their own individual duties. As they were walking Ash remembered something and turned to Nurse Joy who had been just about to make her way to the back of the Center where the treatments are done.

"Nurse Joy, can I use the phone booths?"

The nurse blinked her eyes at the sudden request but nonetheless nodded. "Sure."

Ash nodded in gratitude before he and Cynthia handed their Pokémon to Nurse Joy. They then made their way to the green phone booths on the far-right side of the Pokémon center where there was a row of them.

"You plan on calling the Professor?" asked Cynthia as she stood beside Ash who was now seated on the stool in front of the phone booth.

"Him and my mom." Said Ash.

First, he called Professor Oak and turned the speaker on. The blank dark gray screen eventually came to life when Professor Oak came on with a happy smile on his face. "Ash my-boy! Its great to see you safe and sound. You too Cynthia. Did you two reach Viridian City?"

"Yes, Professor we did."

"That's good. I just got a call from Gary saying he's already in Pewter City getting ready for his first gym battle. Honestly, giving Gary that car was a very bad idea. I don't know what his parents were thinking." Said Oak with a sigh.

"Yeah…anyways, I just called to say hi. And that a couple members of Team Rocket just tried to steal the Pokémon from the Pokémon Center but we managed to stop them."

"TEAM ROCKET?!" shouted Professor Oak, stunned at the information. "Are you two alright?!"

"Don't worry Professor, we're fine. We have our Pokémon by our side after all." Said Cynthia with a smile not mentioning the part of Ash stepping in to get the sack of Poké Balls since she left that up to him if he wanted to mention it.

"I'm glad to hear that but you have to be careful. Team Rocket is not an organization you want to mess with. It doesn't end well for people that do." Warned Oak in a very serious tone.

Ash and Cynthia hesitatingly nodded. "We'll be careful." They replied although making sure not to say anything else. If they did come across Team Rocket doing any atrocities they would not be able to just stand by and do nothing.

Oak satisfied with the answer nodded. "So, do you plan to head to Pewter City next?"

Both trainers nodded before Ash spoke, "I also registered myself to compete in the league so I will be going for the gym badges."

"I see. Finally found a goal for yourself?"

"A temporary one." Ash responded.

"Well I wish you and Cynthia luck." Said Oak with a smile.

"Thanks Professor." The two replied.

"I have to go now. Professor Rowan just ordered some pizza and I don't want him gobbling it all up." Said Oak before hanging up.

Ash and Cynthia sweat-dropped a bit at the last bit.

"I'm going to sleep." Said Cynthia to which Ash nodded and she walked away.

Ash then dialed his mom's number and after a few rings, the blank screen lit up showing his mom in a white fluffy bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head.

"Ash! You made it to Viridian City?" asked Delia as she had a smile on her face since she was happy to hear from Ash so soon.

"Yes. Me and Cynthia just arrived here a few hours ago. I also decided to take the Pokémon league challenge."

"That's wonderful to hear! Just know, that I will be cheering you on!" Delia cheerfully replied.

"Thanks mom." Ash than sighed before he explained to his mom, his and Cynthia's recent encounter with Team Rocket. She pretty much had the same reaction as Professor Oak but just more serious and worry filled. He calmed her down and promised to be careful to which Delia nodded. The two then said their goodbyes before hanging up.

Ash then walked to his room which had only one room with a bed in the center, a small cabinet beside it and a washroom on the right side of the room. He took off his clothes, leaving only his boxers on before he fell asleep on the nice comfortable bed.

* * *

Ash set the two Poké Balls containing his Pokémon friends down on the ground right next to him before he began to do several stretching exercises to loosen his muscles.

He had just woken up about half-an hour ago and it was 6:30 a.m. now. After finishing all his morning rituals, Ash had found that Nurse Joy was awake mainly because she had gotten up early to still check up on all the Pokémon from last night. So, he had gotten back Ignis and Raijin who had been completely healed and were currently sleeping inside their Poké Balls.

After he was done his stretches, Ash once again began going through all the various fighting techniques taught to him by Machamp. He would have gone on his regular run first but he decided to skip that today mainly because he wanted to continue to perfect all his techniques and try to develop new ones to eventually create his own unique fighting style. It's a small goal Machamp had suggested to make his own fighting style that suited him.

While he had gone through his techniques, his mind went through different moves he felt that came natural to him and slowly made a mental note of them. As this was going on, Ignis and Raijin had woken up in their Poké Balls and managed to release themselves after a small struggle. They watched their trainer once again with awe, captivated by the fluid movements while also gaining a determined look wanting to train hard just like he did everyday to become as strong as possible.

It was after Ash went through all his fighting moves did he manage to break out of the trance, induced by his love for hand-to-hand combat, he was in and noticed his Pokémon looking at him. "Good morning you two. When did you wake up."

("Just a while ago.") replied Ignis. ("Can you train us harder? I want to become stronger…much stronger. Can you please push my training so that I become the strongest Charizard ever?") Asked Ignis as it was his dream. It became something he wanted even more after the abuse he suffered through from his previous trainer due to being weak.

"Are you sure Ignis? You know pushing your training can also harm you if your not careful. Plus, I don't want you to dislike me for pushing you so hard." Asked Ash in a concerned tone.

("I'm sure. I won't dislike you but rather respect you more if you do this for me.") Ignis said with fire blazing in his eyes, no pun intended.

("Can you make my training more intense too? I want to become strong.") asked Raijin.

Ash looked at the two Pokémon who had determined looks in their eyes before nodding. "Alright."

("Thank you!") the two Pokémon cheered and jumped to hug Ash which he returned before they jumped back to the ground.

"Now I want you to listen carefully." The two Pokémon nodded and gave him their full attention. "The first step towards increasing your strength is increasing your physical capabilities. Any muscle mass, muscle memory gained through fighting, and just overall strength you gain will carry over when you evolve. So, we will be focusing on increasing mainly those aspects of your training early on while also spending some time perfecting the attacks you know and expanding your move pool."

"We can naturally increase your endurance just through you traveling beside me. Your physical strength is something that will be hard to improve since we don't have any training weights and we can't exactly carry them around while we travel but I'll see if I can come up with something in that regard. I guess the only thing we can work on for now is your speed and agility since being able to dodge and react quickly to attacks is very important, especially in our upcoming gym battle.

For now, I will set up some drills for you to go through to increase your speed and agility before we work on perfecting your steel-type moves since you already have the basics down."

The two Pokémon nodded with an excited look in their eyes and watched as their trainer walked to the middle of the battlefield they were standing in which was located behind the Pokémon center. "Now first of all, I want you do some stretches and loosen your muscles." The two Pokémon nodded and did various stretches in which they felt their muscles loosening a little and after a few minutes they were set to go. "Now the first bit of training is just to see your basic speed in running. You will be running from one end of the battlefield to the other whenever I whistle. I will progressively decrease the time in between my whistles so you will have to run faster and faster as time goes on. It's a basic exercise called the beep test."

The two Pokémon nodded and made their way towards one end of the battlefield. Soon Ash whistled and they were off running to the other side. Once they reached their Ash whistled again after they rested for a few seconds. He repeated this process while decreasing the time interval between whistling and Ignis and Raijin managed to do quite well. They definitely had lots of potential when it came to speed and with more training they would only get better.

By the end of it, the two Pokémon were quite tired but they still had determined eyes so Ash gave them their next set of instructions. "For now, you should work on Metal Claw and Iron Tail and try and channel the energy into your respective body parts for the attack."

The two Pokémon nodded and got to work while Ash did some burpees, push-ups, squats and crunches while they worked on their moves. They did quite well in the thirty minutes they practiced as Ash could see a faint silver glow envelop Ignis' claws and arm Raijin's tail.

Ash had gotten up after finishing his exercises and told his two Pokémon to stop as well, before explaining to them the final exercise they would be doing. "Ok, now this final exercise will focus on both your ability to aim and your agility. What you two will be doing is running around the battlefield and aim weak attacks at each other. Raijin, you use Thunder Shock and Ignis, you use Ember. While your running around and trying to hit your opponent, you will also focus on dodging their attacks. Stop when you two become tired."

The two Pokémon nodded at the explanation and followed it to the letter. They began running around the battlefield and fired off thin streams of flames and electricity at each other. At the beginning, their running and dodging was a little sloppy but as some time went by, they became better at it and mainly jumped to the side to dodge attacks before firing their own. They had been hit by a few of the attacks but in general they managed to avoid most of them. It had helped their skills a lot in dodging since they occasionally rolled their body to the side or even over the attack.

Ash smiled at their progress as the dodging and aiming skill would be very useful in all battles. This type of exercise became even tougher and harder if there were more Pokémon involved and its something he would regularly do to improve their strength.

By the time, Ash had finished training, Cynthia who was dressed in her usual black outfit walked up to him. She had woken up a while ago and had noticed him training. She had gone to the Poké Mart to pick up some supplies for traveling since they had decided they would be leaving for Pewter City today as there was not much for them to do here.

"That's a very interesting training exercise. I may have my own Pokémon go through it." Commented Cynthia to which Ash turned towards her and nodded.

"It's a good exercise that focuses on many different stuff so an efficient training method."

Cynthia nodded before her nose caught whiff of the heavy musky and sweat filled scent coming from Ash. Because of how masculine and arousing the smell was in addition to Ash's shirt sticking to his body, giving her a better view of his ripped athletic body, she developed a healthy blush on her face. "You should take a shower."

Ash had noticed the blush but was not quite sure what to make of it. He smelled himself in one small sniff and nodded at her. "Yeah. Once I clean up, we should head towards Pewter City."

Cynthia nodded her head and watched Ash go trying her best not to stare at his muscular back, only hidden by the wet thin shirt. As her face still held a tint of pink she turned to look at Ignis and Raijin who while exhausted had watched their exchange and noticed Cynthia's blush. She saw the shit-eating grin they had on their faces and blushed in embarrassment.

"What?"

The Pokémon said nothing but the grin never left their faces.

* * *

 **With Ash**

* * *

Ash turned to look at his companions who smiled at him. "Let's go guys."

The two Pokémon nodded their heads while responding in their respective cries as they hopped off of his shoulders and walked beside him after he had put his back pack on and made his way to the door. Once he exited the Pokémon Center he found Cynthia standing some distance away, trying to look a little inconspicuous due to some people whispering when they saw her, saying how she looked familiar most likely due to the fact that she was a model before and participated in the Sinnoh League Conference.

She seemed relieved when Ash had walked up to her, wanting to get away from the attention. Its not that she didn't like it per say, she just preferred to avoid being in the spot light especially after over a year of traveling with only herself and her Pokémon. "Let's go."

Ash nodded and walked beside her as they made their way through the rather large city and eventually found themselves leaving it behind as they walked on the dry dirt road that was quickly leading towards Viridian Forest.

During their walk, Ash and Cynthia had engaged in a small conversation on what Ash wanted to talk about with Professor Oak and Cynthia seemed intrigued about the devices hence her requesting to try a couple of them out on her Pokémon for training. Ash had agreed and a small silence had developed between them which was eventually broken once they had been only around a ten-minute walk away from the beginning of a huge forest of large thick trees, a key feature of Viridian Forest.

"So, how did you training with Ignis and Raijin go?"

"Pretty well. Their determination is impressive and if they go at this rate, they will keep growing stronger and evolve in no time. They also managed to progress in Metal Claw and Iron Tail since I saw their respective arms or tail glowing slightly." Explained Ash to which Cynthia nodded.

"That's good. Their close to fully learning the move. I estimate that just after one more day of practice, they should be able to fully use the move. After, that its just a matter of constantly practicing it on targets."

"Well Viridian Forest is quite large but it shouldn't take us less than a week to get through it. That'll be plenty of time to not only learn but continue their training and get them prepared for Brock and his rock types." Replied Ash.

"Based on your opinion, what should I focus on for my training?" asked Cynthia, wanting to get the opinion of the researcher.

"Physical conditioning is something you should always work on to keep your Pokémon tough and fit. In fact, I think you should take up doing physical training as well Cynthia." Ash said as he looked at her and his eyes trailed over her figure.

This caused Cynthia to be embarrassed. "W-What do you mean? And stop that!"

Ash realized what she meant and bowed his head in response. "I sincerely apologize."

The sincerity and honesty in Ash's tone caused most of her embarrassment to leave her and her heart to soften at him. "It's alright. Anyways, you were saying?"

"You should start doing physical training with me every morning. Its not only helpful for yourself but it will your Pokémon train better as well." Said Ash.

Cynthia raised her eyebrow…well the visible one anyway since her left eye was covered by her bangs, in confusion. "How?"

"Pokémon are influenced by their trainer. Its easy for anyone to command their Pokémon to train hard while they relax. However, if a Pokémon see's you training yourself and putting the same blood, sweat and tears into making yourself stronger, they will be more motivated to work harder alongside their trainer and friend."

Cynthia's eyes widened at that piece of information. She never really thought about that. "Is that one of the reasons why you exercise and push yourself so hard everyday?"

"No. I only do it because I love it. The added effect of motivating my Pokémon is just a bonus for me. However, for you, even though you have a year's worth of traveling under your belt, you could still stand to improve yourself physically and eat healthier. Since you're not a model anymore, you don't have to take such extreme care in maintaining your figure and should just focus on keeping your body fit and healthy." Explained Ash.

Cynthia nodded in understanding at his words since they made perfect sense but it still made her feel self-conscious that maybe she was unattractive. "Do I not look ok this way?"

"I don't mean whatever I said in an offensive way. Its just that you should take care of yourself physically and you can stand to gain a bit more weight in terms of muscle mass. Your health matters far more than your beauty does. Beauty is only skin deep and its who the person is in terms of character that really matters at the end of the day. Plus, its not like you have to worry about your beauty anyways. Your far more beautiful than any woman I have seen in my life-time" Said Ash in a wise and honest tone.

Cynthia nodded in understanding but also blushed a healthy shade of red at the unexpected compliment. It took her a couple minutes to calm down before she managed to say, "Ok. Can I exercise with you than?"

"Of course." Ash nodded in response.

By this point the two had already arrived at the entrance to Viridian forest, indicated by the thick line of huge trees. As they entered the forest, a comfortable silence enveloped them which seemed to happen a lot between them after their conversations but they usually used these times to contemplate about what they just talked about or think about other things.

After a couple hours of walking, Ash and Cynthia rubbed the sweat off of their heads as the dense humid atmosphere of the forest was really sapping their energy. Pikachu and Charmander had been returned to their Poké Balls an hour ago because they had been completely exhausted from their morning training and traveling through the forest.

The trainers had just arrived at a small clearing with a pond and were about to fill up their canteens. While they hadn't drank all of the water, it was better to take the opportunity to fill it up completely.

They also noticed there was quite a large flock of Pidgey and a couple of Pidgeotto and one Pidgeot hanging by the pond, drinking the water. "We should go slowly…" started Ash but that's when all the Pidgey, Pidgeotto and Pidgeot flew away. "Never mind."

As they neared the pond, Ash noticed a lone Pidgey still sitting by the pond looking at its reflection in the clear water in a curious manner, intrigued upon seeing its reflection. Ash gazed at the Pidgey and remembered the flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto and the one Pidgeot who was their leader he had made friends with that lived in the Corral.

Pidgey were pretty weak and not aggressive in the least but they usually fought ferociously when threatened. Trainers always tended to ignore the little birds since they weren't that strong but Ash thought otherwise. He always believed that Pidgey, when they evolved into Pidgeot, can become extremely powerful Pokémon if trained the right way. His knowledge of the species supported this since as a Pidgeot, they had incredible speeds and their power over the wind was phenomenal. Not many people knew this but the first Champion of Kanto in fact had a Pidgeot.

Cynthia saw Ash gazing at the Pidgey for a few moments before he started walking towards it. "Ash?" she asked while stopping.

Ash didn't answer back and just approached the Pidgey who had noticed his presence once he had been around fifteen feet away and turned to look at him with a curious gaze.

"Hey Pidgey." Ash asked while lowering himself to the ground to make himself look smaller. "I was wondering if you wanted to join my team of Pokémon." Said Ash as he took out the Pokémon food cube and a couple pieces of Pokémon food, specific for flying types appeared in a flash of white energy in his hand. He then took a couple steps forward to place the food on the ground and then went back to his original place, continuing to look small.

Pidgey tilted her head in confusion at the human. Usually humans ignored them and, in a few cases, attacked to capture one of them. She never heard of any human asking them to join them. She had hatched around six months ago but was fairly knowledgeable about the world thanks to her flock…which had left already. Ignoring the fact that she had gotten distracted and the flock flew without her…again, she turned to the human. ("Why are you asking me? Don't humans just attack if they wish to capture us?")

"I prefer Pokémon join my team from their choice. If you wish to battle before hand than so be it. But I know Pokémon have families and I would not do something like rip you away from it." Said Ash to which the Pidgey looked at him even more curiosity and awe while his non-threatening soft look made her drop her guard. Plus, the aroma of the delicious Pokémon food was also getting hard to resist so she began to take a few steps forward with her small legs.

Cynthia had her eyes widened as she heard those words come out of Ash's mouth. She had the exact same line of thinking and its how she had gotten all her Pokémon except for her starter Gible who was gifted to her as an egg by her grandmother. It was refreshing and heart-warming to see the scene unveiling in front of her.

Meanwhile, Pidgey had reached the pellets of Pokémon food Ash had laid out and carefully ate one of them. The moment she finished with one, her head became a blur as she devoured every single pellet of food as it was the most delicious thing she had eaten in the short time she has been alive.

After, she was done, Pidgey looked at Ash with starry eyes. ("If I go with you, will I get more of that delicious food?") she asked in a hopeful tone.

Ash smiled at her. "Of course. And if you want, I can promise that I will try to make you very strong but that will require lots of training. Do you still want to join me?"

Pidgey tilted her head a bit as the ecstasy induced by the delicious food left her system and she thought about the human's question. In her flock, she always admired the fierce yet kind Pidgeot that led them. He was strong and always protected them whenever other Pokémon attacked them, mainly Fearow and Spearow, along with the occasional trainer. It had intrigued her often and she had found her mind captivated by the thought of being as strong and amazing as that.

This human said he could make her like that which caught her attention a lot…but not more than the delicious food did. Plus, this human did seem very kind and interested in her so that was a bonus. So, after a few moments of thinking, Pidgey nodded her head.

"I can't give you a battle now since my friends are too tired but I'm sure we can later if you want." Said Ash before he took out a friend ball from his back pack and left it a meter in front of Pidgey. "Go ahead. Its your choice."

Pidgey thought about it for one last time, still finding it odd how this strange human was giving her so much freedom in this decision. Its what made it so much easier, so she walked over on her short legs and tapped the center button of the green colored Poké Ball with her beak causing the ball to open and suck her inside it in a flash of scarlet energy.

The ball shook for a few moments before it clicked signalling the capture. Ash smiled at the ball and pressed the center button again, releasing the normal-flying type from the comforting artificial environment. "Welcome to the family Pidgey."

She cooed in response, enjoying the warmth in his tone.

"Oh…I should introduce myself. My name is Ash. Do you have a name or would you like me to give you a nickname?"

("I don't have a name. Can I have one?") Pidgey asked to which Ash nodded.

He began thinking of a good nickname for the female bird. It was easy to tell this Pidgey was female thanks to her bigger fluff of feathers on her chest and the center row of brown feathers on her crest is a bit longer than male Pidgey. After a while, he thought of a decent name for her. "How about Audra? It has different meanings such as, Noble Strength and Storm." Pidgey nodded her head and cooed in response, liking the name and its meanings. Ash nodded in response before pulling out his Pokédex. "I'm going to scan with you with my Pokédex Audra. Don't worry it won't hurt at all."

Audra watched as her trainer took out a black colored device with white outlines and opened it up and pointed it at her. She tilted her head in curiosity when she heard a mechanical voice coming from the device.

 **[Pidgey knows the following moves: Quick Attack, Gust, Sand Attack, Feint Attack, Brave Bird (Currently unavailable)]**

Ash was impressed at the fact that Audra knew Brave Bird, despite it being locked mainly because her body couldn't handle the powerful move. No doubt one or both her parents knew the move and since Pidgey did not learn this particular powerful flying type move, it would be very useful in the future.

"Come here Audra." Said Ash in a warm and gentle tone as he patted on his shoulder to which Audra nodded just a bit hesitatingly before she made her way to Ash and landed on his shoulder after fluttering her wings. Her talons were sharp and Ash could feel them through his clothing but it didn't hurt much. Ash then stroke Audra on her neck and moved around to the back of her crest, earning lots of cooing from the normal-flying type before just melting to his touch.

Ash smiled at this seeing as how he found a weak spot when it came to his new friend. With that done, he got up and walked over to the pond of water and Cynthia followed as they both filled their canteens with water. The two trainers than made their way out of the clearing and began their trek through the dense forest.

The two trainers talked with each other a bit, discussing their views on Pokémon and just what amazing creatures they were. Audra just looked around at the forest in a very curious nature, intrigued by every single detail since this was her first time actually traveling through it, rather then landing in a clearing and making nests on the trees on the perimeter of said clearing.

After about half an hour, they came across a trainer who challenged Cynthia first but she refused since it was easy to tell the trainer was a rookie. So, she let Ash have the challenge and he had immediately accepted.

As Ash stood around thirty feet away from his opponent, he took in the boy's appearance. He wore red-shorts, a blue shirt, and had bug-catching gear, consisting of his hat, net and bag. He had brown hair and black-eyes and was around his age.

"Let's go Paras!" shouted the trainer in a rather high-pitched obnoxious voice as he threw his Poké Ball into the air, out of which appeared a brownish-orange colored carb-like crustacean Pokémon with rather large beady eyes and two mushrooms growing on its back.

Ash was surprised to see Paras since they mainly lived around Mt. Moon and most of the bug type trainers that usually traveled through the forest mainly had the more common Caterpie and Weedle. "Audra, ready for your first battle?" asked Ash to which the bird nodded and flew a few meters into the air and shrieked at her opponent.

The boy decided to make the first move. "Use Stun Spore!"

The Paras began to shake its body, releasing yellow colored powder towards Pidgey.

Ash knew he couldn't let that attack hit otherwise the battle was as good as over. "Use Gust."

Audra began to rapidly flap her wings, creating a strong gust of wind that easily blew the yellow powder away while also pushing the Paras backwards, causing a bit of damage and discomfort.

"Use Scratch!" shouted the trainer.

Ash raised his eyebrow since he didn't know how the bug specialist could expect Paras to jump high enough to actually hit Audra who was still hovering a few feet in the air.

"Gust then Quick Attack."

Audra obeyed and flapped her wings again, sending another gust of wind towards the bug-grass type, sending it tumbling backwards just as it was getting ready to charge towards her. She was then surrounded by a thin veil of white energy before rushing towards Paras in a streak of white light and striking it on its side.

The impact knocked the Pokémon out and Ash was happy that Audra had gotten lucky in managing to avoid hitting the mushrooms which probably would have inflicted some sort of status condition on her.

Audra flew over to Ash and landed on his shoulder as he heard the familiar beep coming from his Pokédex of receiving his prize money. "Good job Audra. That was a great first battle." Said Ash as he gently scratched her on her neck, under her crest which caused the avian to coo in absolute delight.

The bug trainer hadn't said a word as he had returned his Pokémon and left, leaving Ash and Cynthia alone. The two looked at each other and began to make their way through the forest.

"You know, if you keep this up, your Pokémon will become very strong in no time at all." Complimented Cynthia. It was very surprising to see the amount of skill and potential she saw in Ash despite the fact that he was a Pokémon Professor.

"That's good. At least I will be prepared for the Indigo League then." Replied Ash.

"True."

The two trainers then began to continue their trek towards the forest. It was quite a while later when the sun was getting ready to set did they come across another small clearing with a rather large pond did the two decide to take a break. During their trek, Ash had found a few more trainers to battle causing Pidgey to gain lots of experience. They were all fairly easy battles due to all of them being bug type trainers but regardless it was good for Audra.

Ash and Cynthia then set up camp in the clearing and once they were done, Ash decided to introduce Audra to her new teammates and family and let them to get to know each other. So, with that said, Ash was currently sitting on the grass near the fire they had made with Cynthia sitting near him.

"Alright Audra. Ready to meet your teammates?" asked Ash to which she nodded and chirped in response. Ash then unclipped Ignis and Raijin's Poké Balls from the inside of his jacket and threw them into the air, causing the fire and electric type to materialize in a flash of white energy.

The two looked around and yawned slightly due to their sheer exhaustion from their intense training and one-hour trek through the dense and humid Viridian Forest. Their eyes then landed on their trainer and the unknown but familiar Pidgey on his shoulder.

"Ignis. Raijin. I want you two to meet Audra. She recently joined our team and is apart of our family." Said Ash with a smile to which the fire and electric type nodded and waved at the flying type.

("Hello!") Ignis and Raijin said to which Audra flew off of Ash's shoulders and landed in front of them.

Audra chirped in response before she began looking at Ignis and Raijin in a very curious manner since she had never seen their kind before. Ignis and Raijin could only watch her in confusion as she walked around them and inspected them.

Ash turned to look at Cynthia, leaving the Pokémon to get acquainted with each other. "You should let your Pokémon out to. I'll make some special Pokémon food for them." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded since she had requested Ash teach her about making good nutritious Pokémon food since she usually bought the simple packs from the Poké Mart but Ash told her that its better to make specific Pokémon food for her Pokémon for better growth. Cynthia then called her whole team out.

This caught the attention of Ash's Pokémon who looked at the very fierce and powerful Pokémon with awe and fear. Well Charmander looked at them with determination blazing in his eyes, just wanting to become stronger and facing those titans in battle. Ignis and Raijin had seen and met them already but it would still be awhile until they got used to their presence.

"Alright everyone! Just relax until dinner is ready." Cynthia commanded to which the six Pokémon nodded.

Charmander immediately went towards Gabite and said a few words before firing embers at the female dragon, wanting to show his strength but Gabite merely brushed off the flames with an uninterested look but Ash and Cynthia saw the look of amusement in her eyes.

Raijin introduced Audra to the others and they just spent time talking and getting to know each other.

Meanwhile, Ash had gotten out the cube shaped device that stored a large amount of his mother's hand-made Pokémon food. He clicked specific buttons to get various Pokémon food, specialize for the various types of his team and Cynthia's team.

He placed lots of the Pokémon food in the specified bowls for his and Cynthia's Pokémon before he absorbed the sacks of Pokémon food back into the cube-shaped device. He then took out a few jars from his backpack which consisted of various proteins and vitamins, along with powder made from crushed berries.

"You know while normal Pokémon food that you can buy from a Poké Mart contains the main nutrients a Pokémon needs, its better to make your own. This way you can give your Pokémon the specific nutrients they need for their bodies."

"I know that but its hard to make it when you're on the road." Said Cynthia.

"Yes, but if you want to make sure your Pokémon are growing optimally, you have to try and find the time to do this sort of thing. Its pretty easy to make a huge chunk of it using the kitchen in Pokémon centers. I can show you when we run out of Pokémon food but until then we can just use the one my mom made." Ash said to which Cynthia nodded.

He then began adding spoonful's of the brown liquid substances in a few of the jars to all the food bowls. Cynthia saw that they were basically key vitamins and nutrients in concentrated liquid form.

"Can you tell me what specific tastes your Pokémon like?" asked Ash to which she nodded and began explaining it and Ash sprinkled the various berry powders he had over the specific bowls, slightly changing the taste of the food to suit the Pokémon.

Eventually Ash finished which is when they called all the Pokémon over for their meal. Cynthia was not surprised when she saw everyone dig into their respective bowl of food like a starving Snorlax.

Ash had also made some spicy red bean soup, using his mother's special recipe and the can of the food she had packed when he had left Pallet Town. This food was good in that it packed protein, tasted simply amazing and packed nice amounts of other essential nutrients. Cynthia had almost started drooling from the aroma and it had been an amusing sight for Ash, watching her trying to compose herself.

The two had enjoyed their meal in comfortable silence while their Pokémon had spent the time lazing around after filling their bellies with the delicious food. They then washed all of the dishes and packed everything away before getting ready to hit the sack. Ash had told Cynthia they would be waking up early in the morning to train tomorrow.

It wasn't long before both Ash and Cynthia fell asleep in their respective sleeping bags in their tents with Ash's Pokémon sleeping inside the tent with him while Cynthia's Pokémon slept outside her tent around it.

* * *

Ash shook the sleeping form of Cynthia who responded by groaning in her sleep, trying to slap away whoever it was that was trying to wake her. Ash kept shaking her until she eventually got up with a groan.

"What is it?" she asked in a sleepy and irritated voice.

"Time to train Cynthia. Our Pokémon are already up and ready and I'm good to go as well. So get up and wash yourself and wear something comfortable." Said Ash as he walked away leaving Cynthia to sigh.

She was not a morning person so having to wake up this early since even the sun hadn't risen, was very irritating to her but she did ask for it. Plus, after she had thought about it in her head after her conversation with Ash yesterday, she had to admit that he had a point in regards to exercising and keeping her body healthy. Traveling through Sinnoh had conditioned her physically quite well but she was still thin from her time as a model and could use to put on more mass in terms of muscle and increase her endurance.

So, as those thoughts ran through her head, she got up and went by the pond to do her morning rituals while noticing out of the corner of her eye that Ash and his Pokémon were stretching their muscles and her Pokémon followed their example. By the time she was done with her morning rituals and had changed in her tent into a pair of stretchable sweat pants and a blue top, she made her way towards Ash and his Pokémon who had finished with his stretches.

"So, what will you be training me on?" asked Cynthia with her irritation of having to wake up so early having finally left her.

"Well first, I'm going to have you do some stretches after which you'll go through some basic exercises which I will be able to use to determine your strength and endurance. From their I can come up with a good exercising schedule you can follow and set weekly goals for yourself to improve." Explained Ash before he turned to look at her Pokémon who seemed a lot more rejuvenated and filled with energy, no doubt because of the meal from last night. "You should start your Pokémon's training as well and then get started with stretching."

Cynthia nodded as she made her way to her team and ordered to practice some of their more powerful techniques before engaging in mock-battles with each other. After, that had been done, she made her way back to Ash who had begun doing various exercises and had done the stretching exercises she saw him doing earlier. It had taken around 15 minutes to get through them after which she felt herself feeling pretty loose.

"Alright what next?"

"Now, I need to get an overall feel of how you are physically. So, I'm going to have you do push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, crunches, planks and burpees." Said Ash as he selected the exercises that will allow him to figure out Cynthia's upper and lower body strengths, the strength of her core, and the amount of endurance she had.

Cynthia nodded and proceeded to do those exercises and Ash did the same but also kept an eye on her to evaluate her. Cynthia's Pokémon seemed surprised that their trainer was now exercising but nonetheless focused on their training while occasionally glancing at her.

By the time Cynthia had gone through the exercises, she was panting for air on the ground while Ash was looking at her with a contemplating look but she was too tired to notice.

From her performance, Ash saw that she had little upper body strength, lower then the average strength of girls her age since she had only been able to do modified version of push-ups when she was on her knees, and she could not a single pull-up. However, her core strength and endurance had been very impressive with how long she had been able to hold her planks, do numerous crunches and variations of them along with being able to do lots of modified burpees. Her leg strength was also very good.

So, with that he knew of what Cynthia needed to work on and would devise a good workout routine for her. Now that he was done with his exercises, he went through all his fighting moves which Cynthia watched with awe.

During this time, Cynthia's Pokémon not only worked harder after seeing their trainer train their body but they had been also intrigued by Ash's fighting techniques, especially Lucario.

Ash's Pokémon had also tired themselves out by training their endurance through running, Audra included and a few exercises before they had begun practicing their moves. By the time it was around 10:00 a.m., Ignis had managed to envelop his arm in silver colored energy that took the form of a fierce looking three bladed claw while Pikachu's tail had been enveloped in the silver colored steel energy causing the lightning bolt shaped tail to look purely metallic.

Ash knew that now that the two had the steel type moves pretty much perfected, all they had to do was put some strength behind the attack which was difficult as the steel type energy also increased the weight of the appendage they enveloped. But this would be a good thing since they would be able to train their strength this way but he would have to make sure to come up with a strategy to somehow put momentum and strength behind the steel type attacks to increase their effectiveness in his upcoming gym battle.

As far as Audra went, she had done well in following his instructions of flying in the air and seeing how fast she could go and had surpassed his expectations in terms of speed. Ash had also asked if Cynthia's Togekiss could teach Audra how to use steel-wing since again, the steel type move would come in very handy. Togekiss, had happily begun to teach the basics of the move and her training was progressing quite effectively despite being a bit behind Ignis and Raijin.

Cynthia's Pokémon had done quite the extensive training themselves in the past four hours as they not only managed to go through their more powerful attacks and maintain them for an extended period of time but they also managed to engage in some pretty intense mock-battles.

Of course, battling was the only sure-fire way to become stronger and that was the main form of training that can make any Pokémon extremely powerful. Training just added onto that strength but battling and gaining experience is what really mattered. But since Cynthia's Pokémon were far too powerful for rookie trainers, she couldn't really battle much but Ash's Pokémon were still young and inexperienced so they needed to engage in as many battles as possible.

With that said, Ash and Cynthia had broken from their thoughts and eaten some breakfast consisting of some left over red bean soup from last nights dinner. After that, they had packed up and decided to continue traveling through the forest however, Ignis decided to remain outside while Raijin and Audra took a small break and rested within their Poké Balls, with Raijin's dislike of Poké Balls lessening quite a bit.

The two made their way through the thick trees and dense humidity, determined to get Pewter City and the sight of their first Kanto gym badge.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia smiled in satisfaction as they exited Viridian Forest, leaving the thick trees and dense atmosphere behind, finding themselves on a dirt road that went through some average looking trees towards Pewter City. Ignis and Raijin were walking right beside them while Audra was flying above them.

The trek took about nine days mainly because of the numerous battles Ash had engaged in the forest with all the other rookie trainers and bug-type specialist he had met. He had won all those battles, earning quite a bit of cash which was pointless to him. What was most valuable was all the experience his Pokémon had gotten from the battling. Not only were they looking stronger then they were before but they had managed to completely master their respective steel type moves to the point they could easily use them with no trouble at all.

Ash was more then prepared now as he had the option of using Audra in the upcoming gym battle as well who had the advantage of being able to fly. Plus, all the physical strength and endurance they had gotten would be a huge help. They improved leaps and bounds in the nine days.

Cynthia had improved as well, as she was showing to have better endurance and was able to do her exercises for much longer periods of time. Ash was also forcing her to increase her appetite along with doing more exercises for her upper body. While Cynthia was always left panting and exhausted, she had been rather impressed by the results in the short period of time. If this went on, she would be physically fit in no time although it was annoying to have to wake up so early in the morning. But as a wise man once said, "No pain. No gain."

Her Pokémon had also improved in terms of their techniques and managed to keep in tip top physical condition by increasing the intensity of their mock battles since they probably wouldn't be having any real battles that often. Also, the nutritious and delicious food Ash had fed them was helping them immensely as well.

Ash had also found himself staring at Cynthia at times when she exercised but it was never more then a few seconds and he couldn't figure out why that was.

The two were enjoying the nice peaceful atmosphere of the blue sky and the lush green trees that were on both sides of the dirt road. The medium sized buildings that were visible a small distance away let them know that they were very close to Pewter City.

"So, are you ready for the gym battle Ash?" asked Cynthia although she knew the answer but was just looking to start a conversation.

"Yes. Thanks to your Pokémon and your help, I'm more then ready." Replied Ash.

"It was no problem. You helped me and my Pokémon more then we helped you."

"Well…" right as Ash was about to reply, he saw a small flash of light in the corner of his eye and also heard Ignis and Raijin growl.

Not a second later, a figure burst through the nearby bush and head straight for them with what was clearly a sharp sword in its arms. Ash instantly reacted thanks to his many years of martial arts training and became a blur as he rushed at the figure, leaning to the side to avoid the sword and landing a powerful haymaker on the head of the figure causing them to go tumbling away while dropping the sword.

Ash rushed at the fallen figure and picked up the sword from the ground before pressing his foot on the fallen figure's back. Cynthia and his Pokémon ran over to him and Audra flew down, landing near her trainer after the shock of everything that just happened wore off. "Ash are you ok!?"

("Are you alright?!") Cynthia and the Pokémon shouted simultaneously.

"I'm fine." Ash simply replied before turning to the figure who he prevented from getting up and his face was still licking the dirt. He noticed how he was wearing some sort of helmet and armor that were of the design that ancient Samurai wore. "Who are you and why did you attack us?"

The figure muffled in response since his face was buried in the dirt and couldn't get any words out. Ash lifted his foot in response but pointed the sword at the figure who turned around and stared at the two attackers with wide-eyes. "I'm sorry! I wasn't going to harm you! I just wanted to battle you!" said the seemingly fifteen-year-old male dressed in the samurai gear.

Ash rubbed his thumb against the blade of the sword and felt that it was real. "If you didn't want to harm us than why did you attack us with a real sword?" Ash asked coldly getting a shocked look from Cynthia and his Pokémon before glaring at the teen.

The kid didn't reply too terrified of everything that happened in the past minute. "Well I guess I'll have to turn you over to Officer Jenny."

"No please don't!" the teen said. "Honestly I wasn't going to hurt you! I just wanted to know if you're from Pallet Town and if you would like a battle!"

"Why do you want to know if we're from Pallet Town?" asked Cynthia still glaring at the teen alongside Ash and his Pokémon.

"A trainer from Pallet Town recently came by and defeated me so I wanted to restore my honor as a Samurai!" exclaimed the kid in a dramatic fashion, his fear of being at sword point left him.

Ash was able to read the teen and saw that he wasn't lying. "And instead of just asking, you decided it would be better to attack us with a real sword? Were you dropped as a kid?" Ash asked the teen in an ice-cold voice.

"Hey!" the teen replied in anger.

"Fine, if it's a battle you want then it's a battle you'll get." Said Ash, wanting to beat some sense into this very, very stupid teen.

The teen grinned in response. "I will defeat you and restore my honor! My name is Samurai! What is your name?!" said the teen again in an dramatic fashion.

'Samurai!? This guy really is mentally unstable.' Thought Ash and Cynthia in response.

"Ignis, let's go." Said Ash in a cold tone.

The fire type grinned maliciously at the opportunity of the battle ahead and to pay the strangely dressed human for attacking his trainer and friend he has come to respect immensely.

Ash's other Pokémon and Cynthia walked a few meters away but their eyes never left Ash and the other trainer, all of them still on edge.

"Pinsir, time to battle!" Samurai said as he launched his Poké Ball into the air, causing the Pokémon to be materialized in a flash of white energy. The bug type had a dull brown body, with spiky pincers on top of its head, and had flat horizontally arranged teeth under is angry looking eyes. It also had short and thick legs, and along and thin arms with each limb having three claws. "Use Vice Grip!"

The Pinsir's wings flapped rapidly as he flew a meter above the ground and made his way over to Ignis.

"Dodge, then Ember and Dragon Dance." Said Ash.

Ignis followed the command and used the skill he had gained from the numerous attack and dodging sessions he had with his fellow Pokémon to easily roll out of the way of Pinsir's attack. As the bug type flew by him, Ignis launched a thin stream of flames right onto Pinsir's back. The bug-type screeched in pain as the attack did quite a bit of damage especially with Ignis' increased power due to all the training and battles.

"You'll pay for that! Use Hyper Beam!"

Ash's eyes widened. He did not expect the bug type to know the immensely powerful move. No doubt this teen taught the Pokémon using a TM. He saw the bug type form an orange ball of pure energy rather slowly no doubt due to inexperience with using the move. At the same time Ignis was surrounded by thin crimson and black aura as his speed and attack power was increased.

"Dodge it Ignis! End it with Metal Claw after!" shouted Ash.

Ignis heard the commands and prepared himself since from his trainer's tone, he knew he couldn't be hit by the attack. He saw his opponent release a beam of orange energy about the size of the bug type's body towards him. Thankfully, thanks to Ignis' increased speed, he managed to jump out of the way of the attack and due to Pinsir's inexperience, he couldn't redirect his aim.

Once the attack flew past Ignis and caused an explosion on the dirt road behind him, Pinsir dropped to his knees and arms panting from the exhaustion caused by using the powerful attack. Ignis immediately reacted and ran towards the bug type with his right arm glowing with silver energy that took the form of a triple bladed claw. He brought it down on Pinsir's head, immediately sending the Pokémon into unconsciousness.

Ignis grinned at his fallen flow and released a thin stream of flames into the air, trying to show his power, something which became a habit after winning in all his battles.

"Great job Ignis!" said Ash to which the fire type grinned at him and ran over to his side along with Cynthia and his other Pokémon.

Meanwhile, the teen in Samurai armor returned the bug type and glared at the trainers before running away, forgetting that they till had his sword in their possession.

Cynthia saw the trainer running away and grinned in response. Hopefully, the idiot teen learned his lesson. She then turned to Ash, "Nice battle and thanks for that Ash."

"Thank you and no problem Cynthia." That guy really needs to get a mental health check-up. He then looked at the sword he still had in his hand. "I'll give this to the Officer Jenny in Pewter City."

"Well, let's get going. I could use a hot shower and meal tonight before we battle tomorrow."

Ash nodded at his fellow traveling partner before they began making their way to the City. Audra flew above them while Ignis and Raijin walked beside Ash, finding traveling like this more and more appealing as their endurance had increased leaps and bounds from the intense training and lots of battling.

The two eventually found themselves standing in front of the Pokémon center. Right before entering the City they had encountered a rather strange man named Flint who tried to sell them rocks which was quite weird and plain stupid. Ignoring the man, they had made their way to the police station where they have them the weapon and told them how they obtained it along with giving their proof of I.D to Officer Jenny. After, which they made their way to the Pokémon center and were ready to relax for the night after the nine days they spent in the forest.

The two entered the red roofed building and walked over to the counter where Nurse Joy was standing. "Hello and welcome to the Pokémon center!" exclaimed Nurse Joy from behind the counter before her eyes widened at the two. "Oh, you two must be Ash Ketchum and Cynthia Shirona."

"How do…" Cynthia was about to ask before Nurse Joy cut her off.

"The Nurse Joy in Viridian City is my younger sister. She called me and told me how you saved all the Pokémon from Team Rocket. Thank you for that." said Nurse Joy in a grateful tone. "The food and rooms will all be on the house for you two."

Ash and Cynthia thanked Nurse Joy in response before the two handed her their Poké Balls after Ash had recalled his Pokémon. They then went to their rooms which Nurse Joy had assigned them. They took a nice hot shower after which they came to the cafeteria and enjoyed a nice hot meal while engaging in a conversation with each other mainly about their upcoming gym battle.

After that, they received their Pokémon back since they were completely healthy, just tired. The two had gone back to their room afterward and went to bed, with Ash releasing his Pokémon to sleep with him on his bed.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia currently stood in front of the Pewter City gym which more or less was shaped and colored like a giant boulder. They looked at each other before pushing the large wooden doors and walking into the gym.

It was fairly dark but the lights soon came on, revealing that the trainers were currently standing in a large battlefield with numerous boulders laid everywhere and a few rocks jutting out of the ground.

They saw a trainer with dark brown hair and brown skin wearing dark orange pants and a green vest with many pockets over a green t-shirt standing on the other side of the battlefield.

Before they could even blink, the man who they recognized was most likely the gym leader, dashed over to them and was on one knee in front of Cynthia.

"It seems that the heavens have guided your way to my humble gym oh gorgeous angel. Please do me the honor of…OWWW!" the man screamed as another male teen that looked an awful lot like him, pulled on his ear harshly and dragged him back a few steps.

"Sorry about that. My brother can't seem to handle himself around girls. My name is Forrest and this is Brock, the Pewter City gym leader." Said the younger looking teen.

"I'm Ash and this is Cynthia." Ash replied but with a little bit more edge to his tone due to his annoyance over the gym leader's actions although he didn't know why he was so annoyed.

"We're here for a gym battle." Said Cynthia while glaring at the gym leader.

Forrest finally let go of his brother's ear who composed himself after hearing that he had challengers. "Ok. Can I please see your Pokédexs please?"

The two nodded and handed over their respective Pokédex. Brock pressed a few buttons and scanned through the information before handing them back to their respective trainers and nodded. "So, who will be battling first."

Ash stepped forward since both he and Cynthia decided he would be battling first thanks to a rock-paper-scissor game. "That will be me."

"Ok. It will be a two-on-two battle. You'll be allowed substitutions but I will not. One of us will win when either side's Pokémon are unable to battle or one of us forfeits." Explained Brock.

Ash simply nodded in response before he made his way to the trainer's box nearest to him while Brock made his way to the other side of the field where he originally was when they entered the gym. Cynthia made her way on top of some stairs to watch the battle from the upper floor while Forrest took his place in the referee box.

"The gym leader will release his Pokémon first! Begin!" Forrest shouted.

"Let's go Geodude!" shouted Brock to which a round boulder like Pokémon with two human-like arms made of stone came from his side.

"Let's go Raijin!" Ash said as he launched his friend ball into the air, out of which the electric mouse Pokémon materialized onto the battlefield.

"Using an electric type against my rock and ground type is not very smart." Said Brock thinking he was facing some stupid rookie trainer. He had not gotten any information regarding the trainer when he searched their Pokédex since he mainly looked at if he has earned any gym badges. He knew that Ash just begun on his journey while the beautiful blonde he was traveling with has participated in the Sinnoh League conference.

Ash didn't reply to the statement but rather just went ahead and gave his command to electric type. "Use Thunder Shock!"

Raijin grinned internally and nodded, as he knew what strategy his trainer was going with after they had chatted during their journey through Viridian Forest.

Brock sighed at the stupidity. "Take it then use Harden and Rollout."

Geodude nodded and simply absorbed the thin stream of electricity which had no effect on him. The rock type then curled into a ball and was temporarily covered in a thin white veil of power as his defense rose before the rock-ground type began rolling towards Pikachu.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge!" Ash commanded.

The electric type nodded and was covered in a white veil of energy before he ran in streak of white light, easily avoiding the oncoming Geodude.

"Keep using Rollout!" ordered Brock.

Geodude nodded and kept going after Raijin while using Rollout, steadily gaining power and speed.

"Keep dodging." Ordered Ash gaining an intrigued look from Cynthia from above since she knew about the strategy Ash would be using and she had to admit it was quite smart.

In the next minute, Raijin kept on dodging Geodude who kept chasing him getting faster and faster thanks to Rollout.

"Now Raijin!" Ash eventually commanded to which Raijin nodded while running.

The electric type then turned to race straight towards the incoming rock-ground type.

Brock raised his eye-brow at that. He thought that Ash was quite stupid since he should know with the amount of momentum and speed Geodude has gained from constantly using Rollout, his Pikachu will be instantly knocked out if it made contact.

Raijin raced towards Geodude as his tail began to take a silvery glow.

When the electric was near Geodude, Ash shouted, "Use Iron Tail!"

Brock's eyes widened.

Pikachu used the speed and momentum from Quick Attack to further empower his Iron Tail attack which he swung at Geodude by turning his body right as he was a meter away from him.

A loud boom was heard as the electric type's powerful steel-type attack made contact with Geodude, instantly sending him flying back and crashing into a large boulder as small rocks and dust was knocked up. When the dust settled, Geodude was shown to be unconscious much to the surprise of Forrest who had to take a moment before he processed what happened.

"G-Geodude is unable to battle!"

"Amazing job Raijin! I'm proud of you!" Ash shouted to his friend.

("Thanks!") Raijin happily replied, feeling pride at his trainer and friend's words and his accomplishment.

Brock recalled his fallen friend as he realized Ash's strategy. By using Thunder Shock in the beginning, Brock had lowered his guard thinking this was some rookie trainer without the basic knowledge of type strengths and weaknesses. After that, he deliberately kept telling his Pikachu to dodge Geodude's Rollout so that it continues to build speed, momentum and power before using that against him and ending the battle in one move with Iron Tail. A very well thought out and executed strategy that took him by surprise but now he knew what Ash was capable of and would not make the same mistake.

"I'm very impressed. That's quite the strategy you used, but this next battle won't be so easy! Onix let's go!" said Brock as he released a giant serpent like Pokémon whose body consisted of numerous large boulders attached to each other.

"Begin!" Forrest said when Ash didn't recall his Pikachu.

"Use Rock Tomb!" shouted Brock.

The Rock Snake Pokémon roared before slamming its tail onto the battlefield causing large boulders to jut out of the ground around Raijin.

"Dodge with Quick Attack! Get close to Onix!"

Raijin was enveloped in a white veil of energy as he sped towards his opponent but much slower then before no doubt tired from running at intense speeds non-stop against Geodude. Raijin managed to run out of the way of the boulders that were looking to trap him and reached the giant Pokémon.

"Use Iron Tail on its head!"

Raijin followed his trainer's command and managed to easily speed his way up Onix's body while his tail was covered in a silver glow before taking a metallic appearance.

"Knock him away Onix!" shouted Brock.

The rock-ground type roared before trying to use his tail to swipe the electric type off his body but it was much more difficult then expected since Raijin's agility had improved quite a bit from his training and dodge and attack sessions with his fellow Pokémon.

He managed to make it up to Onix's head before swinging his tail right on its head which was one of its more weaker spots. The Onix roared in pain and anger as he used his tail to smack Raijin into the ground who couldn't dodge due to being in mid-air.

This hurt Raijin quite a bit as Onix's hard tail hit like a truck and the hard-rocky ground only made it worse. Onix's then smashed Raijin again, this time from the side, sending the electric type flying into a boulder and being knocked unconscious.

"Pikachu is unable to battle!"

Ash immediately recalled his unconscious friend and gazed at the Poké Ball. "Great job Raijin." The Poké Ball shook very weakly in response causing Ash to smile as he clipped it onto one of his many Poké Ball holders in his jacket. He then took his next Poké Ball and launched into the air, out of which Ignis materialized.

"Begin!"

Ignis gazed at his giant foe and rather then be intimidated, Ignis grinned. The fire type loved the thrill of combat and he only got more excited of having to battle such a fearsome looking foe.

"Dragon Dance!" said Ash, loving the use of the move.

Ignis was surrounded by a thin veil of crimson and black energy as he increased his speed and physical power.

"Use Rock Throw!" shouted Brock not wanting Ignis to get the boost.

Onix roared before slamming his tail into the ground causing chunks of the earth and nearby boulders to fly into the air. Onix then quickly brought his tail up and slammed into the chunks of air and boulders, sending them flying towards the fire type.

Ignis began running towards the rock-ground type and used this empowered speed to dodge all of the large boulders but was still hit by the very small chunk of rocks which caused very minor damage.

"Use Ember on his face!"

Ignis launched a thin stream of flames straight at Onix's face which did barely damage but the flames did manage to obscure the rock snake's vision which is exactly what Ash had intended.

"Metal Claw!"

Ignis grinned as his right were surrounded by silver colored energy that took the form of three bladed claws which he instantly brought down in the cervices in between the boulders that made up Onix's body, causing the Pokémon to roar in pain.

"Onix use Bind!" Brock shouted quickly since the fire type was so close to Onix.

The rock-ground type quickly responded most likely due to his experience in battling and managed to easily locate the fire type now that the flames had dissipated from its face. The snake quickly slithered around Ignis, intending to use his massive boulder and snake-like body to trap him.

Ash eyes widened at the danger of the move since he knew that if Ignis was caught then the battle was over. "Hurry and use Metal Claw on its crevices and get out of there!"

Ignis quickly reacted also realizing the danger he was in and slashed at the space in between Onix's boulders with his three-bladed claw made of silver energy, easily hurting the soft flesh that laid underneath.

This had caused Onix to roar in pain as it was caused quite a bit of damage. This small lapse by the Rock Snake was all the time needed for Ignis to quickly jump on its body and out of the danger of being binded.

"Finish this with Metal Claw on its head!" commanded Ash.

Raijin nodded and raced up Onix's body with both his arms covered in the silver energy forming metallic claws.

"Knock it off with your tail Onix! Hurry!" shouted Brock frantically.

Onix however was still in pain from having his flesh under his protective boulders attacks by the rather vicious move and thus couldn't react fast enough. Ignis had already made his way on top of Onix's head and instantly brought down his metallic claws on the dented area in between its eyes that had been caused by Pikachu's Iron Tail.

The moment contact was made, Onix's eyes widened in shock at the impact from the powerful attack in his rather sensitive area before collapsing on the ground causing Ignis to jump off and land in front of his fallen foe.

Ignis roared in triumph releasing a small stream of flames in the air.

"O-Onix is unable to battle! The winner is challenger!" said Forrest after overcoming his shock.

Brock recalled Onix causing the giant Pokémon to be converted in scarlet colored energy and disappear in its Poké Ball. "Great job Onix! That was a great battle."

Meanwhile, Ash had raced over to his starter Pokémon and kneeled down in front of him. "Awesome job Ignis! I'm so proud of you and Raijin!"

Ignis responded with a happy and pride-filled roar as he launched another stream of flames into the air but made sure it was away from his trainer and friend.

"Amazing battle Ash. You have quite the ability to think on your feet." Complimented Cynthia as she walked over to him, having been very impressed with not only the battle but his growing skills as a trainer.

"She's right you know. You're strategy was amazing and with the way you adapted to the different situations, was quite something. I certainly didn't expect that from a rookie. You deserve this Ash." Said Brock with a smile as he handed a gray colored octagon shaped badge.

"Thank you." Said Ash as Ignis climbed onto his shoulder and he clipped the badge onto the inside of his jacket.

"So, I suppose you're ready for your battle?" asked Brock, turning towards Cynthia. "Just know, that I will be using my strongest Pokémon now considering you have already participated in the Sinnoh League conference."

Cynthia nodded. "Of course."

"It will be a one-on-one battle." Said Brock.

Cynthia raised her eye brow as this would be her first one-on-one gym battle but nonetheless nodded and made her way to the trainer box while Ash walked up the nearby stairs to the second floor to view the battle and treat his Pokémon with some potions.

"The gym leader will release his Pokémon first! Begin!" Forrest shouted

"Golem, let's go!" shouted Brock as he released the final evolved form of Geodude. Golem is a bipedal Pokémon with plated green rocks for a shell, giving it a spherical appearance. The Pokémon also has a head protruding out of the center of its shell, along with two short thick legs coming out of the bottom and arms coming out from its side.

"Gabite, battle dance!" Cynthia said as she released her bipedal dragon Pokémon with sharp bladed fins on her arms and back along with having hammer shark-like features on its head.

In the viewing area on the second floor, Ignis watched with keen interest upon having his rival Gabite face a powerful looking opponent. Ash and a revived Raijin also watched with interest.

"Start things off with Iron Head!" commanded Cynthia.

Gabite roared in response as she was surrounded by a silver colored energy and flew at great speeds towards Golem.

"Iron Defense!"

Golem curled up into a ball in response and was surrounded by a silver aura before his whole body took a metallic appearance.

Gabite collided with the Golem sending a shock wave of power throughout the battlefield causing Cynthia to cover her face to block the dust as the psychic shields around the battlefield flared to life. Gabite then backed off and Golem uncurled who looked to have taken very little damage and only had a small bruise at the point of impact.

"Use Stone Edge Golem!" shouted Brock.

Golem stomped his right foot on the ground before blue glowing grows jutted out of the ground in a line straight towards Gabite.

"Into the air!" commanded Cynthia to which Gabite jumped and flew into the air. "Flamethrower!"

Gabite then released a powerful stream of hot red-colored flames towards Golem.

"You use Flamethrower as well!"

The rock-ground type released its own stream of hot flames which collided with Gabite's attack. The two streams of flames fought for dominance before an explosion of smoke and fire occurred due to the pressure in between the two attacks.

"Earthquake." Cynthia said only loud enough for Gabite to hear.

The dragon-ground type grinned maliciously before flying down to the ground with immense speed and slamming into it with his glowing foot. This caused the ground to start shaking violently as numerous cracks appeared everywhere and the boulders broke. Golem was affected heavily as he lost balance and was hurt by the shockwaves from the attack. The psychic shields around the battlefield strained to keep the attack confined as the building shook a little.

"Golem, get up and use Focus Blast please!" shouted Brock as he saw that the powerful Earthquake had hurt his Pokémon quite a bit.

Golem managed to get back up on its feet but it was easy to tell the Pokémon was hurt. A blue ball of fighting type energy formed in front of his mouth before it was launched towards Gabite.

"Dodge and use Iron Tail!"

Gabite easily flew out of the way since the attack was rather slow. She then flew towards the rock-ground type at incredible speeds as her tail glowed silver and took a metallic appearance.

"Meteor!" commanded Brock.

Golem grinned at the use of the powerful and unique move his trainer had developed for him. He then curled up into a ball and began rolling towards Gabite increasing his speed and power very quickly. Golem's body also took on a thin silver glow that only served to increase the speed and power of his attack.

A couple of seconds before impact Cynthia said, "Sweep him."

Gabite momentarily grinned before twisting her body bring her metallic tail to impact Golem in an upward direction. The moment contact was made, Golem was sent flying into the air which caused both him and his trainer shock to see that the dragon-ground type had such monstrous strength to be able to do this when Golem used his combination of Rollout and Heavy Slam attack.

"End this with Brick Break!"

The fins on Gabite's arms glowed a bright white before she disappeared in a blur, appearing right over the airborne Golem and bringing down her glowing white fins on her opponents head. Her attack hit dead on its mark and sent Golem crashing into the ground as if the hand of Arceus just hit him.

The moment the dust cleared from the area where Golem crashed, the rock-ground type was seen to be out cold.

Forrest just stared with wide eyes, not believing for a few moments that one of the most powerful Pokémon in their gym was taken out. "G-G-Golem is unable to battle! The challenger wins!"

"I'm proud of you Golem. Great battle." Said Brock as he returned his fallen comrade.

Gabite flew over to her trainer and grinned happily at her. Cynthia patted her head in response before scratching her under her chin causing the dragon-ground type to melt in her hands. "Great battle wasn't it."

("Yes, it was.") said Gabite which Cynthia mostly understood given they have been traveling for a while and she has been her trainer.

Gabite looked at the railing where she saw the Charmander eyeing her with respect and admiration. Yet there was also a fierce fire of will and determination blazing in his eyes with the desire to not only grow strong but surpass her in strength. She just grinned at the fire type to which Ignis grinned back.

Ash made his way down to the battlefield with Raijin and Ignis following. "I can see why you made it to the Top 4 in the Sinnoh League Conference. That was quite the battle Cynthia." Said Ash with a warm smile.

Cynthia's heart fluttered a bit at the praise and smile causing her to smile happily in response. This had a similar effect on Ash and neither noticed their gaze had been locked for a bit more then usual but their Pokémon sure did.

"I think you more then earned this Boulder Badge Cynthia and for both of you, this TM Rock Tomb." Said Brock as he handed another gray octagonal shaped badge to Cynthia who took it and placed it in a black badge case she took out from her coat. She and Ash both took the disc he handed them and placed it safely in a TM case they have in their bags. "Now, onto important matters…" said Brock in a serious tone causing Ash and Cynthia to look at the man in an curious yet confused manner.

Brock then took a step towards the trainers, building the suspense.

"Cynthia…will you…DO ME THE HONORS OF GIVING ME YOUR AUTOGRAPH!" exclaimed Brock as he got on one knee with a book that showed a picture of Cynthia dressed in a stylish red dress from her days as a model.

"Ok, come on lover boy. Time to get out of here. Honestly sometimes, I can't believe you're my big brother." Said Forrest as he dragged his big brother away by his ear eliciting a scream of pain from the gym leader.

Cynthia, Ash and their Pokémon could only blink and sweatdrop at the ridiculousness of what just happened. They blinked a bit as Ash pushed away the strange surge of anger and some other feeling he felt came within him due to Brock's actions.

"Well…time to go." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded as they walked out of the gym.

"So, Cerulean City next?" asked Ash to which Cynthia nodded.

"I wonder how good the Sensational Sisters are? I have heard they put on quite the water shows but haven't heard much about their skills as gym leaders." Said Cynthia.

"Neither have I." said Ash which increased their curiosity of their upcoming gym battle.

"Let's get our Pokémon checked up. We should then stock up on supplies at the Poké Mart and then head out. The trek through Mt. Moon won't be easy." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded.

The two then made their way to the Pokémon center while feeling good from the battle they just had. The future was looking nice and bright.

* * *

 **And that's the end of Chapter 2!**

 **IMPORTANT QUESTIONS!**

 **Which Pokémon do you want Ash to catch, including the ones he already has? Let me know in reviews or PM's and keep in mind the limit and the fact that he will not be getting any legendary Pokémon.**

 **Which Pokémon do you want Cynthia to catch, including the ones she already has? Let me know in reviews or PM's and keep in mind the limit and the fact that she will not be getting any legendary Pokémon.**

 **Please review the story and let me know your thoughts about it.**

 **Have a nice day!**


	3. Chapter 3: Evil and Mystery

**Chapter 3: Evil and Mystery**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! This story is for entertainment purposes and in no way am I trying to claim that I own Pokémon.**

 **Note that this chapter has taken a bit of a darker turn but it was necessary for me to show what direction I will be taking this and what types of enemies Ash and Cynthia will be facing in the future.**

 **Questions in the reviews:**

 **Yes, I am Core-AI and this is my new account Sominum.**

 **In regards to the poll, United We Rise won by a landslide at 25 votes, with Legend of the Supreme Emperor being at 10 and the Thor x Kara story being at 2 votes. So yes, I will be continuing United We Rise.**

 **Note that I will be moving that story over to this account once I am finished with the latest chapter and I will be changing the story so that it is seen as a DC x Marvel crossover because after looking over the plot line, I see that it will includes many elements from both.**

 **Ash will catch 18-24 Pokémon overall, not per region! His total Pokémon count will be in that range give or take a few numbers seeing as how the story progresses and if I may need to change it according to how the plot develops.**

 **Also, Aura is briefly explained in this chapter.**

 **Well that's all I had to say. Enjoy the story!**

* * *

Under the moonlight and bright shining stars of the night sky, Ash and Cynthia sat comfortably on the soft grass near the camp fire they created located in a small clearing in the forest they were in. They had left Pewter City earlier today after their Pokémon were checked out by Nurse Joy and they stocked up on healing supplies and food for the road. After that, they quickly left the City of Stone behind and made their way towards the enormous Mt. Moon that expanded for a huge distance and was very tall.

They had covered quite a lot of ground and now were only a day's worth of travel away which was surprising considering how many battles Ash continued to engage in. This had been very beneficial to him and his Pokémon with the amount of skill and experience they gained. Cynthia was surprised that they hadn't evolved yet but suspected because they were taking their trainers words to heart and trying to delay their evolution as much as possible to learn more in their pre-evolved form and become even stronger after.

"So, you plan to use Roserade as your key fighter in the Cerulean Gym?" asked Ash.

"Yes. I do have my other Pokémon for back-up just in case though since type advantage is not everything, especially in gym battles since gym leaders always have strategies in place to counter their Pokémon's type weaknesses." Replied Cynthia as she gazed at all her Pokémon sleeping near her tent.

Ash nodded as he absently scratched Ignis and Raijin causing them to coo in their sleep while Audra slept a couple meters away on one leg with her head buried in her feathers. "Well we should get some sleep. We need to take up early for training." Said Ash as he got up and prepared to head over to his tent when he heard a small rustling sound coming from the bushes behind them.

"Did you hear that?" Cynthia whispered as she was looking at the bushes.

All of their Pokémon had opened their eyes as well and were on guard looking at the bush with calculating eyes, prepared to move instantly should it be a threat.

Ash's Pokémon stood beside him and Cynthia's Pokémon stood by her side as they watched the bush rustle a few more times. A few moments later a pair of Pokémon stepped out of the bush which caused tension to peak but when Ash saw what Pokémon they were, he lowered his guard but all the Pokémon still looked with calculating eyes.

Ash and Cynthia looked at the pair of Pokémon that looked very similar to each other with their buck teeth, crimson eyes, large ears, horn on their head, and a couple of spikes on their back. The main difference was that one of them was a light blue color while the other was a rich purple.

The two Pokémon sensed their surroundings and saw many eyes gazed on them which caused them to shrink back in fear especially with the aura of power radiating from all of them.

"Hey, its alright. We aren't going to hurt you." Said Ash as he kneeled down a few meters away from the male and female Nidoran. He then crouched down even further to make himself look smaller and less threatening which did help in relaxing the two slightly.

A small growl then came from the two Nidoran's stomach which made Ash realize why they came here. They had probably followed the scent of either his cooking or the Pokémon food here.

"Cynthia, can you get the…"

"Sure." Replied Cynthia in a quiet tone, already knowing what Ash was asking for since she had also heard the growl.

She then walked over to Ash's backpack laid inside his tent and searched through it until she eventually found the cube-shaped device that stored a lot of Pokémon food. She then pressed a few buttons and the sack of Pokémon food for poison type Pokémon materialized in front of her. Since the sack was far to big and heavy for her to carry, she took too handfuls of the Pokémon food and made her way to Ash before crouching down like him and placing the pellets of food a couple meters in front of them.

She then backed off before Ash motioned her to crawl back even further away while he did the same. Seeing the food lay in front of them, the male and female Nidoran took a few cautious steps forward and sniffed the food, seeing if there was anything off about it. When they couldn't find anything wrong in the scent, they took a small bite and immediately loved the taste. The two began eating pellet after pellet until only a few remained and by that point they were completely full since due to their small bodies.

The two yipped happily and smiled at the two kind humans before they ran back into the bush. Ash and Cynthia watched with a smile before they yawned.

"Well let's go to sleep."

Cynthia nodded as she made her way back to the tent while her Pokémon also went back to sleep now that the two poison types had left. Ash had made his way to his tent and rematerialized the sack of food back into the cube before going inside his tent with his Pokémon following. Audra fell asleep on one leg near him, Raijin snuggled next to him in the sleeping bag and Ignis did the same on his other side but made sure to keep his tail above the sleeping bag to prevent it from burning.

As the trainer and Pokémon fell asleep, the two Nidoran watched them curiously from their spot in the bush, intrigued by the kind humans and the Pokémon.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia just finished packing up all of their stuff as they prepared to leave their campsite after finishing their intense morning training and breakfast. Cynthia's Pokémon have been improving in terms of all their attacks leaving her to think heavily on the creation of new unique techniques for them to use.

Her own training had also left her exhausted but she was starting to get really used to the pleasant soreness that accompanied after the heavy physical training. Even though she was no where near, Ash's level of strength or endurance, she had been making enough visible progress.

Ash's own Pokémon were looking quite strong as well, and Audra and Ignis were looking particularly close to evolving with Ignis' looking bigger and his flame burning brighter while Audra's crest was looking bigger. With all the battling and intense training, they have done, it was no surprise and they will be probably evolving after one big push. Raijin would of course need a Thunder Stone to evolve but when Ash had brought the subject of evolution, he said that he wanted to grow as strong as possible as a Pikachu before he decided to evolve and Ash happily accepted this request.

Ash's own training was improving quite a bit as he was noting down all the various fighting techniques he had been taught by Machamp and several other fighting type Pokémon. He now had a very good idea of what type of fighting style best suited him. He was a fast and hard-hitting type of fighter that wasn't strong in the defensive area but could more than compensate for that with offensive moves. So, with this in mind, Ash had begun jotting down some notes in a small notebook he carried and was starting to create a unique fighting style.

As those thoughts ran through the trainers' heads, they began to make their way back towards the dirt road so they could continue their journey towards Mt. Moon, with Audra flying in the sky, and Ignis and Raijin walking beside Ash. However, as they were walking through the group of trees, they once again heard a rustle coming from the bush right behind them.

Turning around they heard and saw it rustling again before the familiar figures of the male and female Nidoran they met last night stepped out. Seeing them caused Ash and Cynthia to smile a bit as they knelt down to the ground.

"Hey there." Said Cynthia in a calm tone. "Are you two still hungry?"

The two Nidoran shook their head. ("We want to battle you two.")

Cynthia didn't know what they said so she looked towards Ash who momentarily had wide-eyes. "It seems they want to battle us."

"Really?" Cynthia asked, looking towards the male and female poison types for confirmation.

The two-nodded causing Cynthia to frown. "How are we both going to battle them? I mean my Pokémon are far too strong for them for both of us to engage in a double battle."

Ash hummed. "I suppose you can command Raijin for this battle." He then turned towards the electric type. "Are you ok with that?"

Raijin thought for a moment before nodding his head. While he didn't particularly like being commanded by another human other then his trainer who earned his respect and his friendship, he had been around Cynthia since the point of meeting Ash so he was willing to follow her orders in battle.

"Let's get to some open space for our battle." Said Ash to which Cynthia and the Pokémon nodded their heads.

After making their way through the bushes and trees, the trainers and Pokémon found themselves on the dirt road leading to Mt. Moon. The male and female Nidoran ran to about twenty-five feet away from Ash and Cynthia.

"Let's go Ignis." The fire type grinned and stood in front of Ash while Raijin stood in front of Cynthia and Audra stood on Ash's left shoulder.

"Ready Raijin?" asked Cynthia.

("Of course.") the electric type responded with a nod.

"You two can have the first move." Said Ash to which the two Nidoran grinned, mainly thanks to the battle. They had watched the two humans train their Pokémon but also treat them with lots of love and respect. And with the power those Pokémon displayed, they wanted to join the humans but only after being defeated in battle. Plus, the two Nidoran had a bit of a rivalry with each other so growing stronger to overcome the other was one of their goals.

After a few moments, the two Nidoran made their move. They opened their mouth and launched numerous needles dripping with concentrated poison.

"Ember."

"Dodge with Quick Attack and get in close."

Ignis launched a thin yet powerful stream of flames that enveloped the barrage of poison filled needles, easily burning away the attack and making its way towards the male Nidoran. He managed to quickly dodge out of the way but was sill a bit hurt as the flames slightly brushed him.

At the same time Raijin was enveloped in a thin white veil before disappearing in a streak of white, dodging the needles and closing the distance between him and the female Nidoran.

"Metal Claw."

"Iron Tail."

The two Pokémon's respective appendages glowed as they were enveloped with silver colored energy. Both of Ignis' arms now had triple bladed metallic claws while Raijin's tail took a metallic appearance. Raijin was very close to the female Nidoran and closed the distance between them in an instant thanks to Quick Attack before it swung its tail at the poison type. The female Nidoran responded back with a slightly white glowing head meeting the steel-type move head on.

Cynthia easily recognized the move as Skull Bash and was impressed the female Nidoran knew such a powerful move. However, because of the momentum and intense training Raijin went through everyday, he was far stronger then the poison type and easily overpowered her, sending her tumbling back and into unconsciousness.

At the same time, Ignis had managed to close the distance between him and the male Nidoran fairly quickly and swung his right arm towards the poison type. The male Nidoran responded with a glowing head as well but compared to the female Nidoran, this glow was brown in color.

The two attacks collided but Ignis easily won the confrontation because of how strong he was from all the battles and training but surprise was clearly seen in his eyes at the amount of resistance and power he felt behind his opponent's attack. Ash was no better off since he recognized the attack the male Nidoran used as Head Smash which was the strongest rock type move there is.

The male Nidoran was sent tumbling back and sent into unconsciousness causing Ignis to release a stream of flames into the air, showing his dominance.

"That was impressive." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded.

"Not only do they know powerful moves but they fought very well for wild Pokémon." She replied back.

Ash then walked over to Ignis and Raijin. "Great job you two." He complimented before patting their heads.

Cynthia and Ash then walked over to the unconscious male and female Nidoran and took out a revive from their back-packs. Ash opened the male Nidoran's slightly and opened the revive with one hand, letting the white powder drop into his mouth and Cynthia did the same with the female Nidoran.

They also applied a few sprays from their potions on their heads where they had taken the most damage so that the pain would lessen and their natural healing abilities would be enhanced for the next few hours.

After around half a minute, the two Nidoran jolted awake before looking around frantically. When their eyes laid upon each other and then the two humans and their Pokémon, they calmed down as they processed what had happened during their battle.

"You two are quite strong you know." Said Ash with a comforting smile as he stayed on the ground and Cynthia got down as well.

"It was quite the battle you gave us." Replied Cynthia.

("Of course, I'm strong! I have been training a lot!") said the male Nidoran while standing tall with pride, much to the annoyance of the female Nidoran.

("Oh please, you know I'm much stronger then you.")

(Oh yeah?! Want to go?!) the male Nidoran replied as the two glared at each other before both of their stomachs growled in hunger.

Ash and Cynthia chuckled a bit causing the two Pokémon to look down in embarrassment. Ash quickly materialized the Pokémon food from the cube in his bag and grabbed two handful of pellets and laid it down in front of the two poison types before rematerializing the bag and putting the cube away.

As the two began eating the food, Ash and Cynthia looked at each other and nodded, knowing what the other planned on asking. "Hey, do you two want to come with us?"

"We can train you to become very strong Pokémon. And you can be apart of our family." Said Cynthia.

The two had already finished eating as they looked at the two humans with wide-eyes since they said the exact same thing that had been on their minds since they saw them and their Pokémon training.

("Yes!") the two instantly replied before glaring at each other.

("I'll become so strong, you won't even stand a chance against me!") said the male Nidoran.

("Bring it!") replied the female Nidoran in a fierce tone.

Ash handed Cynthia a friend ball from his back pack to which she mouthed a thank you as she was about to bring out a normal Poké Ball but a friend ball would be a much better choice. They then laid it out in front of them.

"Go ahead. It's your choice on who wants to join who's team." Said Ash as he motioned them to pick.

The two Nidoran's looked at each other before at the humans and contemplated for a few moments before making their decision. The male Nidoran tapped the friend ball that was in front of Ash and the female Nidoran tapped the one in front of Cynthia.

The two were enveloped in a scarlet light before they got sucked into the Poké Ball. They put up a struggle for a couple moments before stopping and let themselves be captured. The familiar clicking sound was heard as the two trainers picked up their respective friend balls.

"Well that was neat." Said Cynthia to which Ash nodded.

"We should let them rest for a bit. We can let them out when we camp near Mt. Moon before heading in." said Ash to which Cynthia nodded.

Ash clipped his ball to one of the Poké Ball holders on the inside of his jacket while Cynthia placed it on her belt. The two then walked over to the three Pokémon that had watched the scene with interest.

"Looks like we just got another family member." Said Ash to which the Pokémon gave their own respective cheers while Ignis also snorted a few flames.

"And you will be able to fight in battles now." Said Ash to Cynthia.

She nodded her head. "It will be quite a while before Nidoran is even close to any of my other Pokémon but until then. I'll put her in as many battles as possible and have her train hard and battle with your Pokémon."

Ash nodded at that before they started making their way towards Mt. Moon. "We should scan our Pokémon." Said Ash.

The two trainers brought out their Pokédex and unclipped their Poké Ball containing their respective Nidoran. As they scanned them, both of the Pokédex displayed information about their recent capture. Cynthia read over what it said about the Nidoran species but Ash ignored that having already known everything there is to know about practically ever known Pokémon.

So, he just took a look at his Nidoran's moves.

 **[Nidoran knows the following moves: Poison Sting, Focus Energy, Peck, Double Kick, Head Smash]**

While Ash began contemplating the best way to train the poison type, Cynthia began reading her Nidoran's moves.

 **[Nidoran knows the following moves: Poison Sting, Double Kick, Scratch, Tail Whip, Skull Bash]**

Like Ash, Cynthia also began thinking about the best way to train the female Nidoran. Plus, it was rather convenient Professor Rowan had increased her carrying capacity from the standard six Pokémon to ten Pokémon after the Lily of the Valley Island conference.

It wasn't long before the two trainers were broken out of their thoughts as they ran into another trainer looking for a battle to which Ash for now happily obliged since both of their Nidoran still needed their rest.

* * *

Ash and Cynthia gazed upwards looking at the massive towering figure of Mt. Moon. While not as big as the other mountains in the different regions, Mt. Moon still covered a good chunk of Kanto.

Not unlike Mt. Coronet that split the entire Sinnoh region into two halves, or the even bigger Mt. Silver that completely separated Kanto and Johto.

Nonetheless, it was still very impressive.

"Well, let's get going." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded. They were both very eager to get through the mountain as quickly as possible and get to their next gym battle.

It had been a day since they caught their pair of Nidoran and after a few hours had passed during the previous day, they had healed completely from their battle before being captured. So, Ash and Cynthia, alternated between battling the numerous trainers they came across, winning all of their battles with their Nidoran, only with Ash taking over with his other Pokémon when the poison types were too tired.

Eventually, the two trainers had managed to reach very near the entrance to Mt. Moon, being only half-an hour walking distance away so they had set up camp in a nice dry yet somewhat rocky area with very little trees now that they were so close to the mountain.

From their, the two had formally introduced the poison types to all the other Pokémon. The two Nidoran were intimidated at first but nonetheless managed to warm up to them except for Ignis who just gave them a short glance before he went off to train.

After dinner, Ash had asked his Nidoran if he wanted a nickname to which the poison type had shaken his head and so did the female Nidoran. Apparently, they just liked to called themselves King and Queen respectively which caused the other Pokémon to snort at the two poison types who had replied back by glaring at them.

Ash and Cynthia simply went with it and agreed with them. They then discussed if the two Pokémon truly wanted to become strong and they had agreed mainly because they wanted to defeat each other due to their rivalry. So, the two trainers made a good training regime for them which they would continue changing as they grew and became stronger since the two Nidoran were still fairly young, only being seven months in age.

After that, their Pokémon had gone asleep thanks to the nice delicious and nutritious meal leaving the two trainers to talk with each other. Ash and Cynthia had more or less discussed what route their Pokémon's training should go along with their traveling plans. They both had agreed that it would be best to make it through the main gyms and any minor gyms that they came across as quickly as possible so that they could get it over with quickly and have more time to prepare for the conference which was still around nine and a half months away.

The only other rule to these plans included that they would be battling every opportunity they got since of course battling was the number one way for their Pokémon to grow stronger.

They had revealed both of the training and traveling plans they discussed with their Pokémon the next morning after their training session. to which they had agreed whole heartedly. But it was mostly Ignis who loved the plans since he had an extreme fire burning in his eyes wanting to grow very strong with his somewhat meek attitude having burned away. The other Pokémon had a similar drive with Raijin being the closest and Cynthia's Pokémon being behind him.

So, after their discussion and intense training session, Ash and Cynthia found themselves standing right at the base of Mt. Moon as they walked towards the entrance with an eagerness in their step as Ignis, Raijin and King walked beside them, Audra was perched on Ash's right shoulder, and Lucario walked beside Cynthia since he requested to be outside for a while.

As they entered the cave, they saw a few lights hanging on the walls most likely put here by the league to provide an easy pathway for trainers to follow to get through the mountain quickly. However, even with the lights guiding them, it would take around a day's worth of walking to get through the mountain. Even less so with the pace Ash and Cynthia were traveling and since they wouldn't be participating in any battles in the mountain to avoid disturbing the Pokémon that lived here, they should be in Cerulean City before they knew it.

As they walked through the cave, following the lights, Ash noticed his Pokémon getting just a bit tense. Both Ash and Cynthia also felt some foreboding feeling rising inside of them but they had no idea what was causing it. Since everything seemed fine, no one so far voiced their thoughts as they just kept walking. A couple hours later, the trainers found themselves in a large open area of the cave where they saw numerous different pathways with one of them having lights signalling.

The foreboding feeling Ash and Cynthia felt grew. "Let's go." Said Cynthia as she started walking towards the lighted tunnel and Ash was about to follow but Lucario put up his arm in front of them. "Lucario? What is it?"

("There.") Lucario grunted causing the two trainers to look at the tunnel to their left which was enveloped in darkness making it impossible to see.

However, Cynthia could feel some presence there. "I think someone is there."

Ash nodded at that, but inwardly wondering why he couldn't sense anyone there. He always had a knack for knowing if anyone was around him but this time he couldn't sense anything.

Lucario started walking towards the darkness causing the two trainers and the other Pokémon who were on edge to follow. Thankfully Ignis' tail flame lighted the way so they didn't trip on any rocks or run into a wall.

It was about five minutes of walking and navigating through the dark tunnel with Lucario leading them did they come across what Lucario and Cynthia had sensed. There were a group of Zubat, Geodude, Paras and a single Clefairy curled up in a small dark corner. The Pokémon had numerous bruises over their body along with a few bleeding cuts.

When the group saw them, terror became present in their eyes as they tried to run away but found themselves trapped in a corner. The Pokémon then seemed to prepare themselves for a life or death battle as they glared at Ash, Cynthia and their Pokémon with a mixture of fear and hatred.

"Who could have done this?" asked Ash but not expecting an answer.

"Lucario can you calm them down?" whispered Cynthia.

("I will try mistress.") replied the fighting-steel type dutifully.

He then took a few steps forward and stretched one of his arms out before a visible blue pulse of aura emanated from his palm and enveloped the surrounding area. Ash and Cynthia gasped as they felt it rush over them.

For Cynthia, this had always been something that happened whenever Lucario used his aura around her and neither she nor he could explain why that was.

Ash's crimson aura flared for less then a second and was missed by everyone but he felt the blue aura spark something within him. It was the same power he felt on occasion and as time went on, felt it becoming easier to access and more powerful with practice.

The Pokémon visibly calmed down as the calm and soothing power washed over them, calming their nerves as Lucario projected a non-threatening feeling to them.

("Who did this to you?") Lucario asked in a calm tone knowing how frightened the Pokémon still were despite his power.

The Clefairy who was originally curled up behind the group of Pokémon somehow found the courage to walk in front of the group despite the low protest of the other Pokémon.

("Some evil humans came here and attacked us.") said Clefairy not having much information to offer since it had all happened so fast and she as well as her fellow Pokémon friends had barely any time to get away from the attacking humans.

This statement had caused Ash's Pokémon to growl but Ignis was filled with the most rage as memories of his previous trainer's abuse came flashing into his mind. Ash also got filled with rage much like his Pokémon since he absolutely despised these types of people who hurt Pokémon.

("Do you know where these evil humans went?") asked Lucario.

Clefairy thought for a moment before pointing towards the dark part of the tunnel which went deeper into the mountain.

Lucario then turned towards his mistress and traveling companion. ("May I have some of the healing berries?")

Ash and Cynthia understood what Lucario asked for and nodded their heads. They both set their backpacks on the ground gently, to not startle the group frightened Pokémon. They then got a handful of Oran and Sitrus berries out from one of their storage compartments and handed it to Lucario who then set it down in front of the frightened Pokémon.

("Eat this and regain your strength.") said Lucario once he backed a few steps away from the berries on the ground.

Clefairy looked at the fighting-steel type and the humans and their Pokémon who seemed so different from the humans and Pokémon that had attacked them. They had no vile aura surrounding them, nor did they hold any evil intentions to harm them. So, Clefairy took a chance and took a few hesitant steps forward before picking an Oran berry and nibbling on it. Finding the taste amazing she quickly began eating it and invited the other Pokémon to eat the food as well. Although hesitant at first, they quickly devoured the food after starving for the past few days since they were too scared to go anywhere.

"We should go. Their wounds are minor and should heal thanks to the berries. They said that there are more of the people that attacked them deeper in the tunnel." Said Ash.

Cynthia nodded her head having been feeling some vile evil aura permeating through the air. She was somehow able to sense something some distance deep into the mountain and it was becoming more profound with each passing moment.

"Guys, I'm going to return you for now." Said Ash to which the Pokémon hesitatingly obeyed. He recalled all but Ignis since they would need the tail flame to guide them through the tunnel.

"Let's go."

Everyone gave a small nod of confirmation but no one said a word as they began their journey, going deeper into Mt. Moon. As they walked through the tunnel for what felt like hours, they occasionally encountered more groups of terrified and hurt Pokémon along the way who ran away with what energy they had left.

All of them shared the same thought of what could have possibly made all of these Pokémon so terrified.

As time went on, a faint sound of clanging that seemed like metal banging on stone along with a few other faint sounds began reaching everyone's ears while Cynthia began to feel more on edge as she could somehow feel this evil presence in the distance growing stronger.

With their curiosity being peaked, the group hastened their pace towards the sound but made sure to keep their footsteps as quiet as possible. It was a short while later did the group noticed that the ground they were walking on turned from the dark brown color of dirt and rock to a light gray color with a tint of sparkles.

They then noticed an exit to the tunnel they were in up ahead and quickly made their way there but made sure to slowly see what was beyond the exit rather then just bursting through. Hiding behind a set of rocks, the Pokémon and their trainers stuck their heads out of the tunnel and their eyes widened at the scene ahead of them.

Many men and women dressed in black outfits with a big red R on their chest were in the rather huge cavern mining the mysterious gray stone that pretty much made up the entire cavern, with a big opening at the top, letting. Aside from the thirty or so people mining, which Ash and Cynthia instantly recognized as Team Rocket, there was also a few other Rocket members loading many bruised and unconscious Cleffa, Clefairy, and a couple Clefable into metal cages, with a shoulder length blue haired man wearing a gray trench coat that also had a big red R on his chest area, seemingly leading them and shouting out orders.

"Hurry up and got those Pokémon loaded up!" said the blue-haired Team Rocket member before bringing the small radio in his hand up to his ear. "Teams report! Have you located the moonstone?"

Ash, Cynthia and their Pokémon couldn't make out anything after that since the clanging sound of steel on stone along with the occasional groan coming from the injured Pokémon filled the area.

"This is horrible!" Cynthia whispered as she saw the poor state the fairy type Pokémon were in.

Lucario, Ash and Ignis growled in anger, rage and hatred.

"We have to do something." Said Ash to which the others nodded.

"Yes, but we can't go charging in there without a plan." Said Cynthia to which the group silently tried to think of a plan.

After a short while, they heard a few foot steps coming towards them so they quickly retreated into the shadows of the tunnel they were in. They eventually saw two Rocket grunts and a Meowth with which they instantly recognized as the trio that had tried to steal Pokémon from the Viridian City Pokémon center, walk by, seemingly patrolling the perimeter. Ash then released his other Pokémon who looked at their trainer in confusion. He quickly explained the situation to them, receiving growls of anger but remained quiet for the time being.

"The only thing we have going for us right now is the element of surprise. We are heavily outnumbered and have no idea how many more Team Rocket members are in the surrounding tunnels. The moment we attack they will all be alerted." Whispered Ash.

"Then…"

"We have to take as many of them out as we can in our first attack and even the playing field. Your Pokémon will be key Cynthia since they are very powerful. You need to incapacitate as many of the Rockets as you can in the initial attack before they can retaliate." Said Ash, answering the question Cynthia had been about to ask. "While you have their attention, my Pokémon and I will sneak up and get the trapped Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable away from here before joining you."

"Sounds like a plan." Cynthia said and everyone else nodded.

"Attack when I give the signal. I'm going to try and sneak as close to the caged Pokémon as I can." Said Ash before returning all his Pokémon since stealth would be key.

He then slowly checked the surrounding area and saw that no Team Rocket grunt was nearby and the group of people were some distance away and focused on their task so he should be safe. After a few moments, Ash ran out of the cave and hid behind a few stalagmites jutting out of the ground near the perimeter of the large cavern. Ash saw that no one had noticed him and began to silently make his way around the perimeter hiding behind the various rocks and stalagmites whenever he saw the Pokémon of Team Rocket look in his direction.

After quite a while of slow silent movement, Ash managed to make it to the area where the caged fairy types were. They were a few meters in front of the rock he was hiding behind with the leader of the group of Rockets along with a fierce looking Arbok and Muk standing beside him. Ash also noticed that he had some strange black circular disc-shaped device in one hand and noticed that the blue-haired man's Pokémon along with all of the other Rocket Pokémon in the area had a very small circular disc with a blue light in the center attached to it on their heads. It would have easily gone unnoticeable but thankfully Ash noticed thanks to the short distance between him and the Pokémon.

"You know, I'm surprised you managed to sneak up on me, especially this close with my Pokémon beside me." Came the sudden voice of the Rocket head, in charge of the group.

Ash's eyes widened when he saw the man and his Pokémon turn around and face right at the stalagmite he was peaking and hiding behind. Ash saw that he had been found out and got up on his two feet.

"How did you know I was here?" gritted out Ash seeing that he had been discovered. Unknown to him, Cynthia was watching this with fear but ready to take action. She would have already called out her Pokémon had it not been for Lucario stopping her.

"Oh no. The real question is how you even managed to sneak this close to me with my Alakazam watching over this area." The Rocket leader questioned in curiosity and confusion. "Well it doesn't matter. Go get him Arbok."

The Cobra Pokémon did not even hesitate as it launched himself towards Ash at insane speeds.

He saw the poison type heading towards him and was ready to dodge with the strange energy flowing through him but did not get a chance to react as all his Pokémon materialized out of there Poké Balls, with Ignis smashing a Metal Claw attack into Arbok. Raijin, Audra and King stood defensively in front of him, ready to protect their trainer and friend.

Although Arbok wasn't damaged much by the attack, the surprise of the sudden impact caused the poison type to be startled for a few moments as it skidded back a couple meters.

"Those seem like decently trained Pokémon. They could make some nice additions to Team Rocket. What do you think of joining us kid? You could do so much more." The blue-haired man asked.

"Like I would ever join the likes of you." Ash gritted out in a furious tone before he shouted, "NOW!"

Taking this as the signal, Cynthia jumped out of her hiding spot and released all of her Pokémon, giving them commands to attack.

What followed was complete chaos as all of the Rocket members including the blue-haired leader were taken by surprise at the sudden attack. Many explosions occurred throughout the area as all of the Rocket Pokémon began dropping to the ground unconscious while many of the Rocket grunts were blown back by the force from the explosions, also dropping unconscious.

"How did you not detect them!" shouted the blue-haired man seemingly speaking to air.

Ash didn't care what the man was saying as he looked at his Pokémon. "Attack them with everything you got. I'm going to free the caged Pokémon."

His team nodded their heads as Ignis and Raijin respectively launched Ember and Thunder Shock attacks towards Arbok, while Audra and King ran towards Muk using Steel Wing and Head Smash respectively.

Ash saw the poison types focus was mainly on his Pokémon so he focused the unknown power in him and ran towards the caged Pokémon at an amazing speed. However, just as he was a couple meters away from them, an Alakazam materialized in front of him in a distortion of air right beside the blue-haired man who had been standing in front of the caged Pokémon the entire time.

"You fucking brat. You really have no idea who your messing with do you? You'll pay for interfering with Team Rocket. Kill him Alakazam." Ordered the Rocket leader in anger.

Alakazam's eyes began to glow as he prepared to crush Ash's mind who looked at the psychic type with unwavering eyes but they did hold fear.

Right before the psychic could mentally attack Ash, a voice was heard, "Spiritomb! Use Dark Pulse!"

A beam of black rings outlined by a purple glow smashed into Alakazam's side causing the Pokémon to fall to the ground in pain.

"Ash are you alright!?" asked Cynthia as she ran over to him with Spiritomb following right behind her but just as they were a few meters away from Ash, Spiritomb suddenly began screaming in pain and backed away. "Spiritomb, what's wrong?" asked Cynthia in worry as she turned to look at her friend.

Spiritomb backed a meter or so before the pain it was feeling seemingly receded and he was looking as good as new.

"Hehehe." Came the chuckle of the Rocket leader causing Ash and Cynthia to glare at him. "No Pokémon can get in a few meters within my range without suffering unimaginable pain." Said the man as he grinned and the black circular device in his arms began glowing a bit brighter causing the caged fairy types to began screaming in pain but his own Pokémon remained perfectly fine.

"What are you doing to them?!" asked Ash and Cynthia.

"Using their own aura to attack them from the inside." He replied with an evil grin, not at all bothered by the screams of pain. He then looked back as lots more explosions happened.

Lucario used Flash Cannon and Milotic used Hydro Pump, knocking out several of the Golbat out of the air with the silver beam of energy and huge stream of water. Roserade used Dazzling Gleam against many of the Nidorino and Nidorina that the Rocket grunts had, knocking them out with the thin and concentrated pink colored beam of energy. Gabite and Togekiss were flying around using Dragon Claw and Steel Wing respectively, knocking out all of the remaining Pokémon and also knocking out most of the remaining conscious Rocket grunts. Queen was launching numerous poison filled barbs into the remaining grunts as well, knocking them unconscious from the effects of the poison that had quickly spread through their bodies.

"Ignis! Raijin! Audra! King!" Ash shouted causing everyone to turn towards the Pokémon who were looking bruised and beaten also sporting a few cuts with trickles of blood leaking out and were sporting faint purple marks on their bodies.

Arbok and Muk looked at the fallen Pokémon with an evil look in their eyes for a brief moment before they launched themselves towards them, intending to kill them.

Ash saw this and immediately reacted, managing to close the distance very fast and had found himself launching a sideways haymaker into the oncoming Arbok which connected, sending the snake right into Muk.

"Are you guys alright?!" asked Ash in concern as he looked at his Pokémon in concern who looked at him with slight wide-eyes.

"Y-You're an aura user!" came the surprised yet furious voice of the Rocket Leader as he had seen the brief crimson colored energy that had surrounded Ash when he had punched Arbok. "This changes everything! Let's go Nidoking! Nidoqueen!" He shouted as the Pokémon materialized onto the field. "Kill that boy! Rip him apart!"

The two poison-ground types looked at Ash with an evil and hate-filled look. They charged towards him and his fallen Pokémon, intending to follow the commands they were given and rip the human to shreds and bathe in his blood.

"Ash no! Spiritomb stop them!" shouted Cynthia which had also gotten the attention of her other Pokémon.

The ghost-dark type immediately launched a power Dark Pulse attack right onto the side of the charging Nidoking. The attack collided and caused the poison-ground type to grunt in slight pain but more-or less ignored the attack and kept on charging towards Ash.

The raven-haired teen knew he would not survive the attack and with the way those Pokémon were looking at him, he knew they had every intention of follow their trainer's orders. This caused some fear to swell up in him as he felt death closing in on him but he also saw his Pokémon were right in between him and the charging Pokémon, trying their best to get up to defend their friend and trainer but couldn't find the strength to do so.

So, he pushed down that fear and immediately drew upon the power within him, before charging right past his Pokémon towards charging towards the oncoming Nidoking and Nidoqueen, hoping to have the speed and agility to dodge them, maybe get a hit in and get to the other side. He hoped that this would buy enough time for Cynthia's Pokémon, which he saw out of the corner of his eye were making their way towards him, to help stop these hate-filled Pokémon and hopefully keep their attention away from his Pokémon.

Time seemingly slowed down for Ash as he eventually found himself right in front of Nidoqueen who swung her purple glowing arm towards him which he managed to duck under as he kept running. He also managed to spin out of the of her swinging tail before once again ducking under Nidoking, who was just a meter behind due to Spiritomb's Dark Pulse, who was swinging his arm that was enveloped in purple ghost type energy that took the form of a claw.

However, Ash could not dodge Nidoking's large purple tail that swung right into his chest just as he dodged the Shadow Claw and was about to try and punch Nidoking on the back of his head. Ash was sent flying back, over his Pokémon and would have kept flying back had it not been for an enraged Arbok smashing his tail right onto Ash's back sending him smacking into the floor.

"ASH!"

("ASH!")

Came the shout of Cynthia and the Pokémon as they saw the raven-haired man get sent flying before being smacked into the ground hard.

Ash didn't know what happened but his entire body hurt like hell. He had never felt this much pain before even when he brutally trained with Oak's Machamp. His vision slowly started getting black spots.

Cynthia, her Pokémon and Ash's Pokémon could only watch in horror as the Cobra Pokémon launched himself towards the teen with every intention of killing him.

"Yes! Yes! Rip him apart Arbok! I want him in pieces!" the blue-haired man shouted manically while his eyes were filled with hatred for the aura-user.

Time seemingly slowed down for Ash's Pokémon as the distance between the poison types' mouth and their trainer began to close. Rage began to fill them as a new power surged through each one of them.

The Pokémon roared ferociously as Ignis and Audra were surrounded by a bright white light, Raijin's entire body became encased in a powerful armor of electricity and King's body was surrounded by a thick layer of dark-brown energy. This ended up temporarily grabbing Arbok's attention.

Ignis and Audra's forms slightly morphed as they became larger and a bit different. Eventually the light had died down revealing their evolved forms of Charmeleon and Pidgeotto. Right at that moment, Raijin and King ran towards their trainer at full speed with a fierce amount of electricity and rock type energy encasing them respectively.

This was the last thing Ash saw before he lost consciousness.

The two Pokémon rammed themselves into Arbok's body causing the Cobra Pokémon to be sent flying back, crashing into a rather large stalagmite.

Ignis launched a powerful stream of crimson flames straight towards Muk while Audra launched two streams of powerful crescent shaped blades of air, one towards Muk, and the other towards Arbok who was laying unconscious on the ground, the previous powerful attacks of Volt Tackle and Head Smash having been too much for the poison type.

After that, Ash's Pokémon towards their fallen trainer and tried to shake him awake but he didn't respond.

"Ash!" shouted Cynthia as she ran over to him after her brain processed everything that just happened. "Ash wake up!" shouted Cynthia when she made it to him.

Her hands were shaking violently at the thought that he might be dead but she managed to put her two fingers on Ash's neck determining that he was alive but his heart beat was slow. She tried to stop her hands from shaking but found it to be very difficult as she tried searched through her bag, looking for a first aid-kit.

Meanwhile, Cynthia's Pokémon had engaged in a fierce combat with Nidoking and Nidoqueen who fought back savagely but could not match the combined might of Gabite, Lucario, Spiritomb, Milotic, Roserade, and Togekiss as they had soon dropped unconscious.

"Well, it seems you brats are much tougher then first glance. Well at least that aura user will now die!" said the blue-haired man chuckling manically, taking great joy in seeing the aura user on the ground, hopefully being near-death or dead. He then suddenly got a message from his Alakazam above the large opening of the cavern area. "Well it seems like the league is here. Teleport all of us out of here Alakazam! Leave the caged Pokémon, they are of no use to us!" He commanded. The caged Pokémon were merely a way to keep the guardian of this mountain from attacking them.

The Rocket leader, his Pokémon, the unconscious grunts and their unconscious Pokémon both in the cavern and the surrounding tunnels which had been taken care of thanks to Cynthia's Pokémon, were surrounded by a thin blue glow.

"Remember my name brats. I am Team Rocket Executive Pierce! If I ever see you again, I'll make sure none of you live to see the next day." Said the man in an evil tone before glaring with hate-filled eyes at Ash's figure who still laid motionless on the ground.

Ignis launched a stream of flames, Raijin launched a powerful bolt of lightning, Audra launched a stream of crescent shaped blades of wind, and King launched powerful barbs dripping with potent poison straight at the blue-haired man, wanting to make him pay for what he did. However, before the attacks could connect, all of the Team Rocket members and their Pokémon disappeared in a distortion of air.

Right at that moment, a rather large man standing at a height of six feet four inches with carmine colored hair and brownish-yellow eyes wearing a formal black suit with a black cape attached to his shoulders appeared in a distortion of air, along side about a dozen other people and around four Alakazam. The people also wore formal black suits with black glasses and had several Poké Balls in their hands ready for battle.

However, all of them looked very confused when they saw not a single Team Rocket member around. What did catch their attention were the group of rather powerful looking Pokémon looking at them with caution, surrounding two figures which they guessed were their trainers. Beside them were a few metal cages filled with unconscious Cleffa and their evolutionary line.

"Fan out! Search this area for Team Rocket! Take care of the caged Pokémon as well!" The man with a cape ordered before the turned towards Cynthia and Ash's Pokémon who tensed further. He walked over to them but stopped when they growled threateningly. "Who are you?"

Cynthia looked towards the sound of the voice and saw the figure in a cape standing a few feet away. Her eyes widened when she realized who the man was after a moment of thinking. "Champion Lance! Please come here I need help! My friend is hurt and he won't wake up! Everyone let him through!"

The Pokémon did as told and let Lance pass who quickly made his way over to the figure and knelt down very fast when he saw the blonde woman trying to cover his bruises with disinfectant.

Lance quickly took out a radio from his pocket. "I need a medic here right away!" He then began checking Ash's pulse before helping Cynthia in trying to clean the wound as best as she could but it was difficult given her panicked state. "He was attacked by an Arbok and Nidoking." Cynthia replied before not elaborating further, too focused on her hurt traveling partner.

"That would explain it. He has a few broken bones and is bleeding internally but its not too severe. He needs treatment." Said Lance as he tried to help the blonde as best he could and not asking anything else.

Lance knew this was not the time to be questioning the blonde so he helped as best he could until a pair of men and women in white nurse outfits appeared in a distortion of air in the large open cavern they were in and made their way towards them. They quickly pushed away Lance and Cynthia before quickly getting to work on healing Ash as she, her Pokémon and Ash's Pokémon watched the scene with anxious eyes.

* * *

Unknown to anyone, a black cloaked figure hiding behind a large stalagmite in the corner of the large cavern room in the shadows had saw the whole event of Team Rocket mining the moonstone rock, capturing the Pokémon and the two trainers stopping them. He had been very intrigued by them as he could sense that they both were aura users.

Well the male seemed to be capable of using his aura despite seemingly having no training while the female seemed to be subtler in her aura usage. Most likely due her powers still being dormant and because of lack of training and genetics may be a factor but her aura was slowly coming forth.

However, what caught the cloaked figure's attention the most was the color of the aura that had surrounded the boy's body whenever he used it.

"A Muladhara user. Haven't seen one of those in quite a long time. Wonder if he is apart of the Simaya clan…probably not. Seems like Hirama will have some competition Hard to tell what type of aura the blonde uses though. Who knows maybe one day I will get a chance to fight them and destroy them." Said the man to himself with a slight crazy and blood thirsty grin hidden under the shadows of his cloak.

"Time to go." The man's figure was surrounded by a violet veil of energy before the man seemingly disappeared from existence, without even a distortion of air that is usually caused by any sort of teleportation.

Right at that moment one of the men that had arrived with Lance looked right at the spot where he thought he heard some noises but found nothing so he shrugged his shoulders and kept searching through the cavern for any Team Rocket members.

* * *

 **A couple days later**

* * *

Ash groaned in slight pain and soreness as his eyes slowly but surely fluttered open but was greeted with only blurriness. His whole body felt sore, his muscles ached and his bones felt really tired.

"What the hell happened?" questioned Ash to himself in a quiet tone as his head throbbed in slight pain. His vision slowly started to get better until eventually everything cleared and he was greeted with the sight of a white roof with a dim white light glaring down at him. He tilted his head upward and slowly lifted himself up to see where he was and was surprised to find himself in what seemed to be in a hospital bed if the couple wires that were attached to him and monitors around him were any indication.

He was also surprised to find all his Pokémon out and sleeping on the bed with him. However, he became surprised when he saw Ignis and Audra who were no longer a Charmander and Pidgey but were now a powerful looking Charmeleon and Pidgeotto. A barrage of memories then started coming back to him about.

Him, Cynthia and their Pokémon entering Mt. Moon before eventually finding injured and terrified Pokémon. This had eventually led them to discover Team Rocket, which made him quietly growl, mining the gray colored stone that covered the floor and walls of a large cavern whose roof was opened to the sky. After that, a fierce battle took place in which Cynthia managed to take out most of the grunts and their Pokémon with her powerful Pokémon and he had gone after the caged Pokémon to try and save them. It was then he remembered encountering the rather vicious Arbok, Muk, Alakazam, Nidoking and Nidoqueen and how he had ended up getting knocked around, eventually dropping to unconsciousness but not before noticing two of his Pokémon evolving and the other two being shrouded in coats of energy and power.

Ash looked at his peacefully sleeping Pokémon with a small smile and pet Ignis and Raijin who were closest to him and in arms reach. He didn't know exactly what happened after he had lost consciousness and had numerous questions he wanted answers to but knew that Cynthia and their Pokémon must have succeeded in stopping Team Rocket if he was in a hospital right now.

Ash's ministrations caused Ignis and Raijin to stir from their sleep as they felt a hand scratching their favourite places on the back of their neck. Eventually, their eyes opened and were greeted to the sight of their trainer and friend who was finally awake!

("Your awake!") Ignis and Raijin shouted in surprise and happiness which ended up waking Audra and King out of their sleep.

The fire type and electric type jumped to hug Ash which he returned, ignoring the sharp pain that briefly shot through his body at the physical contact since he could see the joy in his Pokémon's eyes.

("We were so worried.") said Audra as she hugged Ash while King nudged his head on his leg making sure to keep his horn away from his trainer and friend and keeping the potent poison inside from dripping out.

Eventually the Pokémon stopped and backed away a bit and Ash could see the worry and slight moistness in their eyes.

"What happened after I lost consciousness? I mean the last thing I saw was Ignis and Audra evolving and Raijin and King being surrounded by a coat of energy."

The Pokémon then went over the events of what happened, starting at the point after Ignis and Raijin's evolution since that's where Ash said he lost consciousness. Ash's eyes widened at the information of how they and Cynthia and her Pokémon managed to stop Team Rocket and their leader who he learned was named Pierce.

Right after Pierce and all of the other Rocket members escaped via teleportation, leaving behind the caged Pokémon probably because the Alakazam Pierce had was not capable to teleporting them as well, the Kanto and Johto champion Lance alongside many official League members had appeared. They had determined that no Team Rocket member had been left behind.

Right after that is when the guardian of the mountain, a very powerful Clefable had appeared before them and thanked them all for their help. The Clefable then used Metronome and somehow managed to get the exact move it desired and teleported every human their Pokémon out of the mountain. If Team Rocket hadn't held all of those Cleffa, Clefairy and few Clefable as hostage, the Mt. Moon Guardian would have acted immediately and gotten rid of Team Rocket.

Soon after, they had been teleported out of the mountain, Lance, the league members and Cynthia had transferred Ash to the Pokémon center in Cerulean City which he was in currently, and several specially trained Chansey of the Pokémon Center and a Gardevoir, loaned by the league members had used their powers to heal him of his broken bones and internal bleeding. This had caused him to stay asleep for two days but also surprisingly heal completely in that small amount of time as well.

It took him a few short moments to process all of the information and just as he was about to say something to his Pokémon, the door to his hospital room opened. Through it walked Cynthia who was wearing a blue top and a black Capri that really captivated her beauty and developing curves but Ash noticed the tiredness behind her eyes.

The moment her eyes landed on Ash who was very much awake she shouted, "Your awake!" She ran over to his bed and seemingly analyzed his entire body with her eyes like a medical scanner. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine. A bit sore but fine." Said Ash as he wiggled his body a little and felt some soreness throughout his body.

"That's good." Said Cynthia in a calm tone before giving Ash a look.

A look he had seen his mother give him a few times when he had gotten a bit reckless with his training and got hurt. It was a look he very much recognized and he knew what was coming next.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING TRYING TO TAKE ON A NIDOKING AND NIDOQUEEN LIKE THAT BY YOURSELF! YOU DO REALIZED YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" screamed Cynthia in Ash's face.

"Yes, but it was either that or let them hurt my Pokémon in their goal to kill me." Said Ash in a calm tone albeit he had a strange feeling in his chest seeing Cynthia worried for him. It was a somewhat pleasant feeling but it was brief.

"For a Pokémon professor you sure are stupid! You could have just _recalled_ your Pokémon in their _Poké Balls_ which would have protected them and then use your freaky super speed to simply run away and give my Pokémon time to come and stop them!" shouted Cynthia albeit in a weaker tone emphasizing key words, feeling a bit surprised at how angry she felt at Ash's recklessness and anger at how calm he was considering how he could have easily died.

Ash opened his mouth but no words came out. He closed his mouth before opening it again and no words come out. This repeated a few more times before he finally managed to find a few words to say. "Good point."

The enraged yet also disbelieving look Cynthia gave him was both amusing and frightening. The low growl coming from her throat only deepened the fear part but whatever rage she had been ready to unleash on him was interrupted when someone else came into the room.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Said Lance with an amused smile as he had heard most of the conversation. Most of the Pokémon Center probably heard the blonde's shouting.

Cynthia, Ash and the Pokémon turned to look at the man. The blonde and the Pokémon had already met the man so they didn't show much reaction. Even Ash kept a calm look despite knowing the Kanto and Johto champion Lance was standing there in all his fancy suit and cape like glory.

"Champion Lance." Ash greeted with a small nod of his head.

"Professor Ash Ketchum as I live and breathe. The youngest person to have ever achieved the title. It's an honor to meet you."

"Back at you." Ash replied in a respectful tone.

"Do you think you feel up to answering a few questions?" asked Lance, the amused smile having been replaced with a serious look. The one of a champion.

"Yes."

Lance then went on to ask a series of questions about how they came across Team Rocket in Mt. Moon and all the events that happened in said mountain. Ash replied while Cynthia and his Pokémon listened without making a sound waiting for them to finish.

"Well that's about it. Your story matches Cynthia's completely up until the point you lost consciousness so that finishes up all the league work here. I have to say you two must be really, really brave or really stupid to mess with the likes of Team Rocket. You do know they are the biggest criminal syndicate in the entire world."

"Of course, we know that. But if you expect us to sit around and do nothing when we see them hurting people or Pokémon, well I'm afraid your wrong." Said Ash with Cynthia agreeing with him.

Lance sighed. "Stubborn kids these days. I'm going to leave you two my number. Contact me only and only if you come across Team Rocket again. Let us handles this and you go enjoy your journey. We will take care of Team Rocket and have them out of the region in no time."

"Don't make false promises as a champion. Team Rocket as you said is the biggest Criminal Syndicate in the world and have been so for many decades. You and the league taking them down in no time is nothing more then wishful thinking." Said Ash in a growling tone mainly because he hated Team Rocket, even more now and Cynthia shared his feelings.

"Look you two are still kids…teens. It's a dark world out there and you shouldn't get involved. Live your life and enjoy your journey." Lance said with a sigh, his attempt at dissuading the two trainers from doing something stupid should they encounter trouble in the future. They seemed so much like him when he was young. Lots of potential but too much recklessness and stubbornness. "Anyways, I have two of my men who have been wanting to meet you two before we leave so I'll send them in soon. And Cynthia, you're Aunt Kisara is still waiting for that call."

Ash saw the fear come on Cynthia's face and didn't see Lance leave the room as he turned to her. At first he didn't know why Cynthia seemed so afraid of her supposed aunt and having to call her when he began to realize just who the man was talking about. "Wait you mean Kisara Shirona…"

"The current Sinnoh Champion and considered the strongest trainer in the world." Said Cynthia. "Oh Arceus. She probably knows about me messing with Team Rocket. I'm…so…dead." She said before dropping to the floor and drawing circles with a black rain cloud appearing over her head.

"Is she really that bad?" asked Ash in an unsure tone.

"Not bad. She is actually very kind and took care of me when…never mind. Anyways, she can be strict at times but if I or anyone close to her did anything stupid or reckless she really let us have it. That's the reason even the champions are afraid of her." Cynthia mumbled falling deeper into depression.

"It sounds like she just really cares deeply for you and doesn't want you to get hurt." Said Ash knowing this since his mom acted very similarly again when he pushed too far during training. Speaking of which…he should call her soon but was not looking forward to the conversation.

"Yeah I know. Doesn't make handling her rage any easier though." Said Cynthia with a despondent sigh as she got back up on her two feet.

Right then, two men in black suits came into the room. "Hello Professor Ketchum, Ms. Shirona." Said one of the men. "My name is Rolan and he's my partner Keegan." Introduced Rolan who was a man with short blonde hair and blue eyes. Keegan also had blonde hair but had green eyes.

"Hi." The two trainers replied simultaneously.

"Are you two the ones who wanted to talk to us?" Ash asked and the two nodded.

"We are going to have to leave soon so we'll make this brief. You see, my friend and I are not exactly Pokémon League members but rather are on loan my Queen Ilene from the Cameron Palace. We're aura users. Not the most powerful but well trained Vishuddha users."

"Ok…no idea what you're talking about or where your going with this." Said Cynthia and Ash nodded his head while his Pokémon listened intently.

"It's a long story and there is a lot of information on aura that would take too long for us to explain. What we wanted to say is that, we both think that you two have the capability to use aura. Based on what we can tell by your aura's color, Professor Ketchum is a Muladhara aura user while you Ms. Shirona most likely can use Anja aura." Keegan explained but stopped when he saw the blank and clueless expression on Ash and Cynthia. "If you get the chance say after the Indigo League is over, you two should stop by Cameron Palace if you want to perhaps learn how to train your aura."

"We'll…think about it." Said Ash after a few moments of digesting the information. It was not everyday you learn that you can use aura or at least be suspected to be able to use aura. Although both Ash and Cynthia did realize that it would explain Ash's freaky speed and superhuman strength he displayed.

"Ok. If you want to learn more about aura, just use the internet although the information on there is very brief but it will let you know where your specific capabilities lie. If you want to get a head start on training your aura then I suggest you start doing some meditation." Said Rolan.

"Well we have to go know. It was a pleasure meeting you Professor Ketchum and Ms. Shirona." Said Keegan, as both blondes game the two trainers a nod of respect and farewell before leaving the room.

"So…what do you think?" asked Cynthia as she turned to look at Ash.

"Its interesting. We can take a look at it later. For now, I need something to eat and a bit more rest. We can continue our journey after that." said Ash laying back down on the bed.

"Ok. I'll go get Nurse Joy and have her check up on you and get some plates of food for you."

"Thanks."

Cynthia turned to leave the room but turned to look at Ash. "I'm glad your okay Ash."

"I am too." He cheekily replied. "But thanks Cynthia."

She nodded before leaving the room.

* * *

It was a half-an hour later did Cynthia finish getting a few plates of food to Ash knowing his large appetite and gathering her courage to face her aunt did the blonde find herself sitting in front of one of the green phone booths in the Pokémon center. She picked up the phone and dialed her aunt's personal number. Each ring grated her nerves making her more and more nervous. She loved her aunt and knew her aunt cared for a lot, much like a mother would her own daughter. But man, her temper scared her especially when she did something stupid and got hurt.

When the blank screen in front of her eventually lit up, revealing the blank face of a very beautiful middle-aged woman who could be easily mistaken as someone being in their twenties, Cynthia's nervousness became even more prominent. Kisara had a beautiful face, pale blonde hair that reached her waist, with two long bangs shaped in swirls rested on top of her well-endowed chest and deep blue eyes.

"Cynthia Shirona."

'I'm so dead.' Cynthia thought to herself. Her aunt only ever used her full name when she was dead serious. The worse part about these types of conversations is that her aunt did not shout at her. But the conversation would be so stiff and the tone of voice she used made her feel like her aunt was about to burst at any moment.

"I hear you and your traveling partner, Professor Ketchum just got into a fight with Team Rocket. Tell me what made you think that was a good idea?" asked Kisara again keeping her blank tone but it held a lot of worry.

"They were hurting and capturing the Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable living in Mt. Moon and trying to mine the moon stone there. I couldn't just leave them like that without doing anything." Cynthia said being able to muster enough courage to speak without stuttering.

"And you didn't think to call the police or the league members to take care of it? You do have their contact information and regardless the league knew about it and were mounting an attack on it."

"Yeah I know that now but I didn't know that before. I know it was reckless but I can't stand around when someone is being hurt like that." said Cynthia in a softer tone.

"Reckless doesn't even begin to describe what you just did. There is a reason Team Rocket has been able to stay running for decades. They are very organized and hold a lot of power. Both financial and in terms of Pokémon. We don't know who their leader is. What you just did is interfere with their operations. This will make you a target. And if…no when they manage to find out that you're my niece then they _will_ come after you, your Pokémon and your traveling partner to get to me and the league. You painted a target on your back especially from what you told Lance of your encounter with a Team Rocket Executive especially with someone like Pierce who we suspect is high in ranking." Said Kisara with more frustration leaking in her tone.

"I'm not going to apologize for doing what I thought was right." Said Cynthia fiercely. "I know it was reckless and stupid but you can't honestly expect me to sit around and do nothing."

Cynthia defiantly met her aunt's steel hard gaze, not backing down despite the raw power and intensity behind the Sinnoh Champion's eyes.

It was a few minutes later did Kisara sigh and closed her eyes and mumbled something to herself. "Arceus, your stubborn. Ok but just please promise me you'll be more careful in the future. And if you ever run across Team Rocket again, then call the police or the league and just keep an eye on them and not engage them unless absolutely necessary."

"I understand."

"I know you understand. But I need you to promise me Cynthia. I can't afford to lose you. You and my mom are all I have left." Said Kisara this time her voice being vulnerable and tired while holding some pain and sadness.

Cynthia knew what she meant and it brought up flashes of a woman with waist length straight blonde hair and purple eyes along with a man with black hair and silver colored eyes flashed in her mind which brought up a bitter sweet feeling of happiness and sadness. "I promise aunt Kisara." Said Cynthia in a sincere tone.

Kisara nodded her head since she knew her niece who she practically considered her daughter never made false promises. It was one of her many admirable qualities. "Thank you." A short silence passed the two as the tense atmosphere dissipated before Kisara got a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "So, I hear Professor Ketchum is quite the looker. You should consider…"

Cynthia immediately hung up the phone with a beet red face. She wasn't sure what side of her aunt was worse. The extremely serious side or the side that would tease her endlessly especially when it came to her love interests which was something that never interested her and still doesn't even up till this point.

Unknown to her, Kisara giggled on her end seeing her niece's reaction. She would have lots of fun with this in the future.

* * *

 **A day later**

* * *

Ash was currently seated in front of the green phone booth of the Pokémon center having just finished a call to Professor Oak had been quite angry for his stupidity of picking a fight with Team Rocket. Now he had begun to dial his mom's number and currently his Pokémon were all sitting by him. They had not left his side at all for the past few days ever since he arrived in the Pokémon center from what he learned. Him being hurt like that must have impacted them much more then he thought.

Those thoughts were pushed back in his mind when he saw his mother's very worried face appear on the screen. "Ash are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Professor Oak told me had gotten a call from Lance that you had battled Team Rocket, which brings up my other question. What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Mom please calm down. I'm fine. I just have a few bruises now. I had a few broken bones but it was nothing big. The Pokémon here healed me completely." Said Ash not bothering to keep anything hidden. He never kept secrets from those close to him. It just wasn't in his nature.

"How can I be calm when you keep acting this reckless Ash! Its one thing to get hurt training here on the Coral, but picking a fight with Team Rocket, do you have any idea what people like that are capable of?!"

"I know mom. But you know I can't stand around and do nothing if someone is getting hurt like that. Team Rocket was harming the Pokémon in the mountain and capturing them along with mining the moon stone. I had to do something. Plus, I did have Cynthia and her Pokémon by my side. She was more then a match for all the grunts there. And my Pokémon protected me as well. I can take care of myself mom so please don't worry." Explained Ash causing Delia to calm down but her worry stayed in her tone as she spoke.

"How can a parent ever not worry about their child Ash? Especially a mother. Someday when you have kids, you'll know what I mean. Honestly your just as reckless and stubborn as your…never mind. Anyways please just be careful Ash. I know you will help anyone who needs help but please be careful. I don't know what I would do if I lost you Ash." Said Delia as a few tears escaped her eyes.

"Please don't cry mom." Said Ash as he put his hand on the screen. He hated to see his mom cry.

"I'm sorry." She said as she wiped away her tears and turned her attention to her son's Pokémon. "Can you four please promise to look after my reckless and stubborn son. I know he can be a handful but please protect him." Said Delia ignoring Ash's annoyed look.

("Of course! We will protect him!") came the simultaneous reply of all the four Pokémon as they gave Delia a salute knowing this human was there trainer and friend's mother.

Delia smiled at them before turning back to Ash. "Now you take care of yourself young man alright. And call back soon."

"I will. Love you mom."

"Love you too sweetie. Bye." Waved Delia before the two hung up the phone.

Ash then turned to his Pokémon. "Let's go guys." The Pokémon nodded and followed their trainer as he picked up his backpack and strapped it on before making his way out of the Pokémon Center.

As he stepped out, Ash couldn't help but sigh as the warmth of the sun caressed his body and the light shined upon the various houses and small buildings of Cerulean City while also causing the large river visible in the distance to sparkle. "Man, I missed the sun so much."

"You were awake in the Pokémon Center for only a day Ash." Said Cynthia as she walked up to him after having packed all her stuff from her room and exited the Pokémon center.

"Too long." Said Ash with a cheeky smile. Cynthia couldn't help but smile back. "So, off for the gym battle?"

"Actually no. I checked and apparently the Sensational Sisters will be holding their regular water show today so the gym will be closed the entire day. We will be able to battle tomorrow. I already scheduled our battle to be first thing in the morning." Said Cynthia having taken care of all that yesterday after her conversation with her aunt.

"Well…that sucks." Said Ash as he thought for a bit before smiling a bit. "Why don't we take this chance to check out the outback of Cerulean City? I heard its filled with great places to train, lots of Pokémon, some rare ones as well which means it probably has many trainers there. It could be great practice for the upcoming gym battle and Queen does need to get some more experience."

"That's a great idea. Let's go." Said Cynthia before pulling out a map of Cerulean she had gotten from Nurse Joy's front desk and the two trainers then began navigating through the city.

After a few minutes of walking, during which Ignis and King walked beside him while Raijin was sitting on his shoulder and Audra was flying high in the sky, Cynthia remembered something else she had done while Ash was recovering and resting yesterday.

"Hey Ash. I forgot to mention that I had researched some things about aura like those two, Rolan and James had told us to do and I found some very interesting things about it. The stuff they said actually makes sense now."

"Oh? Do tell." Said Ash with curiosity in his eyes.

"Well there was not a lot of information to begin with…barely any in fact but this is how I read aura works and this was published by someone from Cameron Palace. Apparently, aura is a type of energy that is released by a living being's life force from within and it can be harnessed and manipulated in different ways. Aura in its purest form is a combination of multiple auras but it can also be divided into 7 different categories or 7 different auras that each with a unique color and attributes. There is Muladhara which Keegan said you can use. Muladhara is red in color and deals with the physical nature of the body. Then there is Swadhisthana which is orange in color and deals with one's emotions. There is Manipura which is yellow and deals with self-energy and willpower. Anahata which is green deals with healing. Vishuddha is blue and deals with intelligence. Anja is indigo and deals with mental communication which is the aura apparently, I can use. And finally, Sahasrara is violet and deals with awareness of illusions and obtaining a higher consciousness."

"Interesting." Said Ash finding all of that very intriguing. "Is there anything else?"

Cynthia shook her head. "This was all there was. Those two weren't kidding when they said that there wasn't much information."

"True. I know there must be a lot more detailed stuff involved in using aura. I have heard many stories of different aura guardians accomplishing wonders and doing things even Pokémon aren't capable of doing."

"Like Sir Aaron's story?"

"That and some other stories. My mom told many different stories of aura users but they sounded mainly like fairy tales."

"So, what do you think we should do? Do you want to go to Cameron Palace after the Indigo League is over?" asked Cynthia.

"Yes. I am curious to learn more about aura and maybe how to better use it. I'm sure you are as well." Cynthia nodded. "I guess, that settles it then."

A short silence enveloped the two as they and their Pokémon walked out of Cerulean City on the North side and made their way through a very large plain that had lots of boulders, hard rocky ground and the occasional tree growing here and there. They could also see a large river in the distance which had sparkling clear water. It was no doubt the same river that had ran through Cerulean.

So, as the two made their way through the area, they came across the occasional trainer and the two battled, although Cynthia could only use Queen given all their opponents were rookies. The two and their Pokémon really had no clear-cut destination in mind as they continued to wander aimlessly.

"Do you want to head to the river?" asked Ash since that was one area he wanted to check out to meet different water types and other Pokémon that lived in bodies of water.

"Actually, I wanted to head East towards the flatter plain areas. When I was in the Pokémon center, I overheard a few trainers saying that during this time of year, many different types of Pokémon tend to move through there."

"That is true. I believe there is a flat plain pathway east of here that Pokémon often use to migrate towards the dense forest that is set near the ocean." Commented Ash as migration patterns of Pokémon is another thing he had studied and memorized under Professor Oak. "Do you want to split up and meet back in Cerulean tonight?" asked Ash.

"Sure. Just make sure to take it easy and no insane training alright." Cynthia more or less ordered with a stern glare. "I don't need you ending up in the hospital again."

"Yes ma'am." Ash said with a slight grin but his tone was more then enough to assure Cynthia.

"Good." She then turned east and began walking away. "See you tonight at the Pokémon center."

Ash waved back at her before he and his Pokémon turned towards the river which was now closer then before. "Let's go."

The Pokémon nodded as they began making their way towards the river, with Raijin and King chatting away, Audra enjoying the cool breeze and the tranquility that came with flying, and finally Ignis was looking passively at their destination.

The fire type eventually walked up to Ash and kept pace with him beside his friend and trainer. ("I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough partner.")

Ash looked at his Pokémon with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean Ignis?"

("I was weak and couldn't help defeat those Pokémon.")

Raijin and King had looked at their trainer and fire type friend with a slightly downtrodden gaze while Audra who also appeared to be a bit sad flew a bit closer to them.

Ash stopped walking causing the other Pokémon to stop as well and Audra landed on the ground. "Listen Ignis, you aren't weak. You…all of you fought bravely and if you weren't there, I may not have made it out of there alive. And me getting hurt was my fault and my own stupidity as Cynthia had blatantly pointed out. I should have acted smarter."

("That's not true. We were weak and…") Ignis said but was cut off when Ash placed his hand on his head.

"Ignis. That is not you talking. That's your previous trainer. I know he was abusive to you and wanted you to be strong. He demanded strength from you that just wasn't in you at the time and its making you think that I want to see that strength in you as well. I don't. I couldn't care less if you decided you never wanted to fight another battle ever again. You are still my Pokémon. Apart of my family. All of you."

The Pokémon's eyes moistened at his words while Ignis looked at the ground as Ash's words hit him deeply. Everything he said was true. His previous trainer wanted power and nothing more. He physically abused him for that power and it had scarred him. Not just on his body but on his mind as well and Ash's words made him realize that. But despite that, he still wanted to become stronger. Go past all limits and become the strongest to protect his new-found family and for himself.

("You are right.") Ignis muttered before he looked back at his trainer with a fierce fire in his eyes which had nothing to do with his typing. ("But regardless, I want to become strong. Not just to protect all of you but for myself.")

("I won't let you get hurt again.") said Audra. In the small amount of time she has gotten to know her trainer and friend and her fellow Pokémon, they became her family. She would not let anyone hurt them. She would not let her trainer and friend be hurt like that again.

("Neither will I. From now on, we train even harder!") said Raijin as electricity sparked from his cheeks. He did not have a good history with people at first since he had to run away from a Pokémon poacher that had invaded his last home. It had been luck he eventually came across a source of electricity which led to him meeting Ash. Something about him just made him trust the human and now he saw him as not only his trainer but his friend.

("Yeah!") King shouted. ("As king I will protect my subjects!")

Ash and the Pokémon looked at the poison type before snickering a bit causing King to huff in annoyance.

"Thank you all of you." Ash then brought he four in for a hug which they happily returned. Soon he got up and the group began continuing their trek towards the river in comfortable silence thanks to their conversation.

Eventually they reached the rather large river and were in awe of how sparkling clean the water was. The cool calm breeze that wash over them causing the leaves of nearby healthy lush green trees only made the scene more beautiful.

The Pokémon and trainer looked around, taking in the sight while also noticing quite a large group of all sorts of water types such as Magikarp, Poliwag, Squirtle and Psyduck along with a few flying types like Pidgey and surprisingly very calm Spearow, and a few other Pokémon hidden in the crowd. They were either resting or playing around in the calm river and having a blast if their joyous laughter was any indication. It brought smiles to Ash and his Pokémon's faces as this scene was pleasant and completely opposite of what they witnessed in Mt. Moon.

* * *

 **With Cynthia**

* * *

After saying goodbye to Ash, Cynthia had found herself traveling through the flat plain with the occasional boulder and tree before the had eventually found herself in a very large clearing. However much to her disappointment there was practically no Pokémon in the clearing at the moment.

'Am I too late or too early?' she thought to herself. She then called out Lucario. "Hey Lucario. Can you sense if any Pokémon are nearby?"

("As you wish mistress.") grunted Lucario causing Cynthia to roll her eyes. Lucario then stretched his arms and brought his paws together before closing his eyes and his tear-drop shaped ears began vibrating and floating a bit. He released a few invisible pulses of aura which caused Cynthia to silently gasp which was something that always happened when her Pokémon used his aura around her.

("There are a few Pokémon near those group of trees mistress.") said Lucario while pointing to a miniature forest located around one hundred meters north-east of where Cynthia was standing.

"Thanks, Lucario."

("No need for thanks mistress.") the fighting type replied.

Cynthia resisted the urge to roll her eyes again but smiled. As she and her Pokémon made their way to the group of trees, a question popped into her mind which she immediately voiced. "Hey Lucario, did you know I can use aura? Even Ash can use it."

Lucario looked at her with somewhat surprised eyes. ("I have long since suspected you can use aura but was never sure. Your aura always fluctuated when I used my aura abilities but I am still young and don't have full grasp on all my abilities. You're traveling partner however was clearly able to use aura. His physical attributes were being enhanced and since you had been able to see his red aura surrounding him, it is proof that you have the potential to use it as well.")

"I see. Can you teach me how to use Anja aura and Ash how to use Muladhara?"

("I'm afraid not mistress. My kind are mainly able to manipulate the raw form of aura which is a combination of the other 7 auras. Specializing and using one of the 7 auras requires much more concentration, effort, and special training. Only humans and Riolu trained from birth and exposed to one of those seven auras can learn to use and manipulate them. Not only this but using those 7 auras is also encoded in one's blood.") explained Lucario.

"Very interesting."

("I can however teach how to better understand your own aura and perhaps unlock your abilities much like how your traveling partner has already done.")

"That's wonderful." Said Cynthia receiving a nod from Lucario.

The two then stopped walking since they had just arrived at the group of trees. The two entered the small forest and began looking around. Cynthia noticed numerous Caterpie, Weedle and the occasional Pidgey. They all seemed very peaceful and it was soothing to watch. However, eventually one figure caught Cynthia's eye and it was an Abra peacefully sleeping while leaning on an average tree.

Cynthia looked at the psychic type and she felt something strange. It was like some sort of faint power connecting to her mind. It was alive and conscious almost like a presence of a living being, separate of her own consciousness. Every step she took near the Abra caused this power and presence to slightly strengthen. Nothing painful or disconcerting but just increased her curiosity.

Lucario watched his mistress with curious eyes. Her aura was flaring up but rather then the rich blue color of raw aura, it was indigo. He could see the small thin stream of the indigo aura connecting with a small tendril of pink energy coming from the sleeping psychic type a few meters away thanks to his aura powers. He suspected that perhaps being around the human Ash and having his aura flare so often caused her dormant powers to slowly awaken. Just enough that she was using them subconsciously.

Cynthia eventually stopped about two meters away from the Abra, now fully aware that the presence she felt in her mind was none other then the psychic type in front of her.

It was a few moments later did the Abra slowly woke up and turned his line like eyes towards the human in front of her. She could feel the human in front of her. She could feel her mind as her mind slightly brushed it. She could feel the curiosity of the human along with a feeling of calmness and a powerful will.

 _"Who are you human?"_ telepathically asked the Abra.

Cynthia silently let out a gasp as she heard the words echo I her head. It was one thing to be able to understand poke speech by spending a long time around Pokémon but another to experience a Pokémon speaking through telepathy. This was the first time she actually encountered this type of thing.

After managing to regain her composure, Cynthia replied back but did so in her mind seeing if the Abra can understand her. _"My name is Cynthia Shirona. This is my friend Lucario."_

 _"Cynthia Shirona. Lucario."_ Abra replied back causing Cynthia to smile seeing that the Abra could hear what she had said mentally although Cynthia didn't realize that she had actually projected those words to Abra rather then Abra actually reading her mind. _"You are interesting human. Why are you here?"_

 _"I was just looking around for a Pokémon that perhaps wanted to join my team."_ Cynthia replied back.

Lucario just watched the two not knowing what the two were saying but could see the thin stream of indigo energy from Cynthia and pink energy from Abra was constantly fluctuating.

 _"I see. Do you wish to capture me?"_ asked Abra although she was not afraid since she could sense no ill intentions in the human female's mind.

 _"If you wish to join my team then I will happily accept you. If not, me and Lucario will be on our way."_

Abra contemplated the offer presented before her. The human female was very interesting since she could tell she held some sort of unique power. It was very similar to her own psychic power but different. Not only that but the human was giving her a choice which was a surprising thing given that all the humans she came across often tried to attack her to capture her which she always escaped thanks to her skill with Teleport.

Numerous other thoughts ran through Abra's head at light speeds. Within one second, the psychic type gently nodded her head.

Cynthia smiled and took out a Poké Ball before gently tapping Abra on the head causing the psychic type to disappear in the sphere in a flash of scarlet energy. After a few shakes, the Poké Ball clicked signalling the capture.

 _"I wish to sleep now human."_ Abra said.

 _"Ok."_ Said Cynthia knowing how Abra typically required 18 hours of sleep everyday. So, she took out her Pokédex and scanned the Poké Ball to see what moves the newest addition to her team and family knew.

 **[Abra knows the following moves: Teleport, Psychic Terrain, Psycho Shift, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch]**

Cynthia's eyes widened at the move set. This Abra seemed pretty powerful and even though they were physically weak, having those elemental punches will be very useful. Plus, she saw that the Abra was female so that was a handy piece of information to have.

She then put away her Pokédex and looked at Lucario. "Let's go back to the clearing. We can do some training and I need to get back to exercising." Said Cynthia as she had not done the exercise routine Ash had set up for her for the past two days.

Lucario nodded as they both went back to the very large clearing which was still very empty.

Cynthia launched her Poké Balls into the air causing her Pokémon to materialize in a flash of white energy.

("Hey Cynthia.") grunted the female Gabite with a grin.

("Hello friend.") came the graceful and soothing voice of the female Togekiss, Milotic and Roserade.

("Kekeke…Greetings trainer-friend.") came the mischievous and creepy voice of Spiritomb.

"Hey everyone!" Cynthia greeted back. "For today, we will we training and having mock battles as well as working on developing unique moves and techniques."

The Pokémon nodded and shouted in joy.

("Where is your traveling partner Ash?") asked Milotic.

"He went by the river to look for some Pokémon." The Pokémon nodded at the answer. "Alright, then. Let's begin!"

* * *

 **With Ash**

* * *

Ash had set down his bag and gotten out of his clothes, leaving himself only in a set of boxers before he, Raijin and King had jumped into the river to have some fun and splash around. Ignis and Audra watched with amused smiles as they saw on the grass a few feet away.

Ash had managed to convince them to take a small break and just enjoy the perfect weather they were having. They would get to some training after a few hours of fun which is how they found themselves either relaxing on the grass or splashing in the cool water of the calm river.

The surrounding Pokémon had backed away a bit in fear of the human and his Pokémon since they first suspected that they would try to attack and capture them. However, after witnessing the human and Pokémon playing in the water or relaxing on the grass, they grew less wary. Some of the more innocent and friendly Pokémon even came over and began to play with them. These Pokémon being a few Squirtle, Poliwag and a very young looking Dratini and golden colored Magikarp.

Ash splashed water towards the group of Pokémon, causing them to look back at the teen with playful eyes. The water types then launched a barrage of very weak water gun attacks which Ash comically dodged before eventually being hit by a few and falling completely into the water.

He got back up and used his hands to push back the hair that had gotten stuck to his forehead. "You asked for it." Ash then jumped a bit before dropping in the water causing a huge splash of water to go over his Pokémon and the wild Pokémon while a few drops hit Audra and Ignis. The non-water types and Dratini enjoyed being covered with water but Raijin, King, and Audra had to shake their bodies a bit while Ignis just raised his body temperature causing the water droplets on him to evaporate.

Dratini came over and began slithering over Ash's body while the Magikarp began swimming around him. Ash laughed as he got tickled by Dratini's movements. "Stop that Dratini…ahaha."

Ash got out of the water after a couple of hours and said, "Do you all want to join us for lunch?"

Everyone roared in happiness as he used his food storage device to materialize Pokémon food of various types and fed both his Pokémon and the wild Pokémon. However, he noticed Dratini particularly enjoyed being fed while being wrapped around his arm while the golden Magikarp tried to come out of the water to be near him. So, Ash had sat near the edge and fed the Magikarp some pellets of food while enjoying his own meal albeit with one hand since his left arm had been occupied by Dratini.

After lunch, the trainer and Pokémon had continued playing until dawn and Ignis had watched with a smile while Audra had enjoyed soaring through the air and stretching her wings while getting used to being a Pidgeotto. It was a good thing Ignis and Audra had not broken any bones before their evolution otherwise they would have faced many problems.

They all didn't even realize it the sun had started to set until Ash had seen the golden and orange rays of the sunset out of the corner of his eye. He then looked at his Pokémon. "We should get going. Its getting late." He then turned towards the water types and Dratini who had been swimming beside his friend, the golden Magikarp around him. "We have to go now everyone." They all seemed a bit saddened by this. "But I promise to visit you all again in the future one day."

The Pokémon visibly cheered at that and said their goodbyes before either swimming or walking away towards the forest in the distance that was split apart by the river.

However, when Ash was about to get out of the river he noticed that not all of the Pokémon had left. Dratini and the golden Magikarp were still swimming around him and were looking at him with saddened eyes. "Hey don't you want to go with your friends?"

The two Pokémon shook their heads and looked at Ash with what could only be described as 'Puppy Dog Eyes.' Ash liked the two a lot as they spent the entire time playing around him and stayed as close to him as possible. "Do you two want to come with me?"

The two Pokémon smiled very cutely at this and happily nodded their heads. ("Yes!") They had felt very comfortable around the human and the aura he radiated. Dratini have always been good at sensing emotion and sometimes the aura of others using its fin like ears and very sensitive round nose. Magikarp had developed this second sense of being able to sense emotions and dangers a long time ago which is what had allowed the very weak Pokémon species to be able to survive and eventually evolve into Gyarados, some of the fiercest Pokémon to ever swim the Oceans and Seas.

Ash smiled warningly at the two. "I would love to have you two join me." He then took out two friend balls and put them in front of the two above the water. The two looked at the devices curiously having never seen them before. "These are called Poké Balls. Touch them and you will become apart of my team and family and no one will ever be able to take you away."

This increased the two Pokémon's curiosity as they touched the spheres and were a bit surprised when they were sucked into them in a flash of scarlet energy. They struggled a bit inside the Poké Balls before remembering the kind human's words and relaxed causing the friend balls to easily capture them.

Ash then released them back out. "Welcome to the team."

Dratini and Magikarp smiled happily at the trainer and his Pokémon who also cheered and gave their own welcome except for Ignis who simply snorted his greeting and shot a small pillar of flame into the air.

"I'm going to have to recall you Magikarp. I'll make sure to let you out when I can find a body of water." The water type nodded in response. However, before he recalled Magikarp, Ash took out a Pokédex to scan his two new Pokémon to find out which moves they knew and what gender they were. It was impossible to tell their gender without scanning their bodies since there were no visible differences that could indicate which was which.

 **[Dratini knows the following moves: Wrap, Thunder Wave, Twister, Dragon Dance, Aqua Jet, Extreme Speed (Currently Unavailable)]**

 **[Magikarp knows the following moves: Splash, Tackle, Flail, Bounce]**

Ash was visibly impressed with both of their move-sets as they were showing a lot of potential. Plus, it seemed that Dratini was female and Magikarp was male. He would keep that in mind when he asked if they wanted a nickname later. After that was over, Ash quickly changed his boxers and got back into his old pair of cloths of black jeans, a white t-shirt with a fire design on it, a dark-blue jacket which was a combination of a sweater and vest jacket, and a gray colored leather jacket with red outlines.

He then picked up his backpack and began making his way back to Cerulean City with Audra flying high in the sky, Dratini wrapped around his left arm and all of his other Pokémon walking beside him.

It was a short while later did Audra shriek a bit and land down on the ground in front of Ash.

"What is it Audra?"

("There is a house sitting near a lake northeast of here.")

"Why would a house be here of all places?" Ash questioned to himself. "Let's go check it out." He said after a few moments of contemplation a bit suspicious about anyone building a house in the middle of nowhere like that.

The Pokémon nodded and began to follow their trainer and friends' lead. It was only an hour later when the sun had finally set and they were walking through a fairly open forest did they noticed two figures flying in the air, a short distance away seemingly headed in the same direction they were headed. Ash saw Audra seemingly go towards them and the figures did not react at all. Upon looking more closely Ash could see that those Pokémon were none other then Gabite and Togekiss which could only mean…

Ash was broken out of his thoughts when the very person he was thinking about appeared through some bushes and trees. "Hey Cynthia."

The blonde's eyes widened in surprise when she saw Ash standing there. "Ash?! What are you doing here?"

"Audra spotted a house in the distance and we decided to check it out? How about you?" asked Ash while keeping a normal face on but he had to keep himself from snickering at Cynthia's disheveled appearance. She had loose strands of hair sticking out here and there, a few twigs stuck in her golden mane and her face had a few bits of dirt on it.

"That's a coincidence, Togekiss noticed it too and…" Cynthia stopped when she saw Ash's Pokémon silently snickering while Ash couldn't hold a normal face and snickered albeit very lightly along with them. "What is it?"

"Have a look." Said Ash as he took out his Pokédex but kept it turned off so Cynthia could see her reflection on the blank screen thanks to the moonlight.

Cynthia looked and it was a bit hard to see but she could tell she was not looking very well. A tint of pink came on her cheeks as she quickly took out a small mirror from her backpack and saw her reflection clearly. The slight tint of pink on her cheeks turned into a full crimson red blush of embarrassment as she tried to clean herself up but a hand making on her shoulder stopped her.

"Relax Cynthia. Here." He handed a small white napkin.

"Thank you." She said before cleaning her face and used her mirror to take the twigs out of her hair.

After she was done Ash looked towards the faint light he could see in the distance. "Why do you think there is a house out here of all places?"

"Don't know. Guess we should find out."

The two then began walking towards the faint light they could see in the distance. As a few hours passed, during which they recalled their Pokémon, they finally made it there. They could see that it was not just a house but also a Lighthouse with a giant spinning light at the top. The front part looked like a normal two-story house with a red roof, dark red colored bricks, a couple windows and a plain mahogany wooden door at the front. However, attached to behind the house was a massive cylindrical shaped lighthouse made of gray stone and a small brown wooden roof at the very top.

"A light house?" Cynthia questioned.

"Quiet. I can hear someone inside." Said Ash to which Cynthia and the Pokémon became completely silent and they could hear some frantic noises and sometimes even crashes coming from within the lighthouse.

The two trainers silently opened the front door to the house peeking inside and were surprised to find a very weird looking Clefairy running around like a headless chicken. The Clefairy almost looked as if it was a costume and if a small man was stuck inside it since the skin of the fairy type seemed a bit weird and the Pokémon stood at a height of three feet and six inches which was much more then the average Clefairy height of two feet.

"What the hell?" Ash and Cynthia questioned.

The weird looking Clefairy stopped frantically running around as it had heard the voices of Ash and Cynthia and looked at the two of them with wide-eyes filled with surprise which eventually turned to relief.

"Oh thank Arceus someone came! Please, help me you two!" said the Clefairy in a strange tone which was hard to describe.

Ash and Cynthia opened their jaws to gape at the talking Clefairy showing no signs of using telepathy. However, the shock only lasted for a few seconds since they had already seen a talking Meowth.

"Help you how?" asked Ash.

"My name is Bill! I'm a scientist! I was experimenting with a machine I created designed to shrink things and accidently shrunk myself when I was wearing this Clefairy costume and now I'm stuck! I need to change back right away or else I'm going to miss it tonight!" Bill/Clefairy said frantically.

"Miss what?" Cynthia questioned as they both stepped into the house, which was a complete mess, and took in the appearance of the massive machine standing in the center of the room. It was made of steel and had two large cylindrical pods at the end, big enough to fit a person, which were connected via a couple large tubes at the top and also connected to a large central box with a monitor and many buttons, via wires.

"I'll explain later! Please just help me! I just need you to pull that lever…" said Bill/Clefairy as he pointed to the small lever in the middle of the sea of buttons under the monitor on the central large box between the two pods. "After I step into the machine. Can you please do that?!"

"Um…sure." Said Ash since he knew who Bill was and the man had quite the crazy reputation with some crazy experiments.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Bill/Clefairy said before he opened the pod on the left by pressing some buttons on it to open the door and stepped inside, causing the metallic door to close behind him and click shut.

Ash then walked up to the lever and simply pulled it down, causing the entire machine to start whirring and some electricity could be seen sparking from the wires so he and Cynthia created some distance between them and the machine.

It was half a minute later did the machine calm down before eventually stop its whirring and the pod on the other side opened and a much taller Clefairy stepped out although it was much clearer now that it was simply a man in a Clefairy suit.

Said man quickly took off the suit although it took much longer due to his lack of calmness. Once he was out, Ash and Cynthia could see Bill who was a man in his mid thirties with disheveled brown hair and black eyes and he wore a blue dress shirt, white tie, and brown pants.

"I'm back…and everything seems to be in one piece." Said Bill as he ran his hands over his body, temporarily forgetting he had company.

"Ahem." Ash and Cynthia cleared their throat simultaneously causing Bill to look at them.

"Oh sorry."

"Anyways, why did you shrink yourself _while_ wearing a _Clefairy_ suit of all things?" asked Ash.

"And why were you in such a rush?"

"Well I somehow had activated the machine when I was tinkering around while inside the pod and…oh yeah its going to be here soon!" said Bill as he began looking through his house making even more of a mess looking for something.

Ash and Cynthia didn't even bother asking again why he was in a Clefairy suit.

"Ah ha!" exclaimed Bill as he found a pair of binoculars and quickly proceeded out of his home while saying, "Follow me."

Ash and Cynthia looked at each other before following the man who seemed to have a few screws loose.

"Mind telling us what's going on?" asked Ash as she and Cynthia found Bill looking through his binoculars towards the ocean, rather uncomfortably close to the edge of the cliff.

"A very large Pokémon. I'm not what sure what Pokémon it specifically is but based on its figure, it seems to be a Dragonite. A very large Dragonite probably around twenty feet and it only appears on this side of the ocean every decade at so at mid-night based on many legends I heard throughout Cerulean."

"Wow." Cynthia muttered.

Ash was too impressed with that information and curious to see the giant Dragonite much like his fellow traveling partner but what caught his attention was a strange plaque of stone on the side of the lighthouse, on which were six carvings of what Ash recognized as Pokémon. Well he recognized five of the six Pokémon which were, Zapdos, Dragonite, Arcanine, Ditto, and Golbat. However, the sixth Pokémon which seemed like a humanoid feline was unfamiliar.

His attention was turned back to the ocean when a beautiful and melodious roar was heard booming throughout the area. The three immediately turned their attention to a large figure hidden by a thick mist that appeared out of nowhere appeared in the distance and was getting closer and closer.

All of Ash and Cynthia's Pokémon suddenly materialized out of their Poké Balls, except Magikarp, which went unnoticed by their trainers or Bill since they were so captivated by the melody of the song that was playing in their heads as a result of the roar they heard before.

The figure in the distance kept getting closer and closer, eventually standing a hundred meters or so from the lighthouse. The giant was still seemingly covered by the mist but Ash and Cynthia could see the silhouette of its body and knew why Bill thought it was a Dragonite.

The huge Pokémon's yellow glowing eyes turned to look at the group of humans and Pokémon, who had bowed their heads in respect at the primal force and aura radiating from the massive beast.

Ash, Cynthia and Bill however were just too captivated and stunned by the overwhelming power that was coming off of the giant that they couldn't move. Just helplessly gaze into the powerful yellow glowing eyes.

The yellow glow of its eyes eventually went away as the giant let loose a deep rumbling growl before it turned around and started walking away, eventually disappearing over the horizon of the vast beautiful ocean.

"Oh Arceus." Cynthia muttered.

"I know. That Pokémon was powerful. Very powerful and very ancient." Said Ash.

"I'm just glad I got to see it. Guess the legends were true." Said Bill.

("Power of a legend…") the Pokémon muttered as they finally started to regain their composure causing Ash and Cynthia to look at them with wide-eyes.

"When did you all come out?" they both asked.

The Pokémon blinked a bit and didn't respond to the question as they too weren't sure when the ancient primal power had drawn them out of their Poké Balls.

"I think they all wanted to see the giant Dragonite, which I now completely believe it is, when it came here." Said Bill causing all attention to turn to him. "I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity. As thanks, here is a first-class ticket for the St. Anne cruise happening in three weeks." Bill then handed Ash an envelop with a golden seal on it.

"St. Anne?" Cynthia questioned curious about it.

"Yes, it's a cruise that goes on a trip in Kanto's seas once every year but since this year is its tenth-year anniversary, they are holding something special. I got invited to it but I never could have made it because of my research. You should take it in my place."

"But there is only one." Muttered Ash.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Just head to Vermillion City and defeat the gym leader, Lieutenant Surge. I heard the Pokémon league has temporarily lifted all restrictions off of him so he can fight all trainers with his full strength and the winners are presented with not only a badge but a ticket on St. Anne." Explained Bill.

"Thank you." Said Ash before he and Cynthia recalled all of their Pokémon since they were a bit tired and a little overwhelmed by the massive amount of power they had felt coming from the Dragonite. However, Ignis decided he wanted to stay out and Dratini had wrapped herself around Ash's arm and fallen asleep so he let her sleep there.

"Just one question. If you wanted to see the Dragonite so badly before we got here, why didn't you just walk out of the door and wait for it?" asked Cynthia.

"The door was locked at the top and I couldn't reach it." Said Bill.

"The door was open. How do you think we walked in?" questioned Ash.

"….."

"Well, see you around!" said Cynthia walking away with Ash following behind her, leaving a gaping Bill behind. They both questioned how the man ever managed to become a researcher.

As they walked Ash remembered seeing an unfamiliar Pokémon on Cynthia's team. "So, Cynthia. You managed to catch an Abra?"

"Yeah. I found her sleeping near a tree in the forest. We met and talked telepathically and I eventually asked her to join my team. By the way, I told Lucario about our aura and he said that while he can't train us to use our very specific aura, he can help us get a better grasp of it and perhaps learn some basic aura abilities." Explained Cynthia.

"Really. That will be interesting."

"So, when did you managed to catch a Dratini?"

"Well me and my Pokémon decided to just take today off and relax after everything that happened…" Ash frowned as a flash of an enraged Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Arbok, Muk, and Alakazam, along with Pierce appeared in his mind but the frown disappeared in an instant. "So, me Raijin and King ended up splashing around in the river while Ignis and Audra relaxed on the grass. Eventually the wild water types living in the river came to play and that's pretty much how our day went. I actually ended up making friends with and catching the Dratini and a golden Magikarp."

"Wow…a rare Pokémon like Dratini and a golden Magikarp."

"Yeah although it is weird why a Dratini was here of all places. They are usually found in the Safari Zone and in the Dragons Den in Blackthorn City in Johto." Ash contemplated but could only come up with the possibility that this Dratini just got lost in exploring and eventually ended up in this river since it connected to both Kanto's seas and the Safari Zone. "Anyways, what did you do the whole day?"

"Lot's of training and go over a few strategies for the gym battle."

"Mind sharing?"

"Sure…"

* * *

Ash and Cynthia currently stood in front of the massive Cerulean City gym which was shaped like a big dome with a red roof and a massive Dewgong board plastered on top of the doors. The two then pushed open the doors and walked in and were immediately in awe of the numerous aquariums housing all sorts of water types who were swimming around happily. It was after a short walk did they reach the end of the hall and walked through another set of doors that led them to a very large swimming pool with numerous white circle pads floating on top and two trainer boxes on each end of the pool.

"Hello. How may I help you?" came the female voice of a girl with orange wavy hair that went down to her mid-back. She wore a simple green dress that went down to her knees.

"Hi. We are here for a gym battle we scheduled. My name is Cynthia, and his name is Ash."

"Oh of course. Just so you know, since we like have so many gym battles today, it will be a one on one gym battle for each of you. Do you accept these terms?" Ash and Cynthia nodded. "Can I see your Pokédex?"

Ash and Cynthia once again nodded before they handed the woman their Pokédex which she quickly looked through before handing them back.

"Whoever is battling first, please stand in the trainers' box and the other sit on one of the benches. I will be back in a few minutes." The orange-haired woman then walked out of a door at the other end of the pool.

"You should go first this time Cynthia." Said Ash to which Cynthia nodded in gratitude before she made her way to the trainer box on one end of the field while Ash sat on the bench on the side of the field so he would have full view of the battle.

It was only a few minutes later did the orange-haired woman come back but along with her came two others. One was a dark blue-haired woman whose hair was also wavy and reached her waist, and wore a knee length dress, only hers was red. The third woman had upper-back length pink hair with two shoulder length bangs and she wore a yellow dress. All three women had brown eyes.

The blue-haired woman made her way to the referee box while the orange-haired woman made her way to the other trainer box. Ash noticed the pink haired woman looking at her and when she noticed his gaze on her she turned away and giggled making him raise an eyebrow.

"This will be a one-on-one gym battle between Daisy Waterflower, one of the three Sensational Sisters and the challenger Cynthia Shirona. The gym leader will not be allowed to make any substitutions. All battle clauses are in effect! Battle, begin!" said the purple-haired woman causing Ash's attention to turn completely to the battle.

"This will be like, so awesome! Gyarados, time to shine!" shouted Daisy as she called out the massive twenty-five feet long sea serpent who roared ferociously.

"Gyarados huh…I got a sea serpent of my own. Let's go Milotic!" shouted Cynthia, calling out the water type that was regarded as the most beautiful Pokémon species in the world. The water type landed in the water with half of her body above the water and the white pads were pushed away a bit due to the new mass of both Milotic and Gyarados.

In contrast to Gyarados' ferocious roar, the twenty-two feet long Milotic let out a melodious cry causing the water around her to seemingly calm down.

Cynthia took a short moment to think before she gave her command. "Use Coil!" She took the more defensive route since she new Milotic was not as physically strong as Gyarados.

The water-type was surrounded by purple energy as the scales that made up her body tightened increasing their defensive power. Her muscles also tightened, increasing her physical strength while her eyes blazed with a faint power that increased her eyesight to a greater level.

"Use Dragon Rage Gyarados!" commanded Daisy, seeing how Milotic was powering her offense, defense and accuracy.

Gyarados released a concentrated orange-colored ball of draconic energy from its large mouth towards Milotic.

"Brutal Swing."

Milotic immediately dived into the water, dodging the Dragon Rage attack which crashed into the water causing it splash upward. Milotic shot out of the water right behind Gyarados just a couple seconds later and smashed her tail which was surrounded by black energy right into the back of Gyarados' head.

The water-flying type was knocked forward and landed in the water but immediately got back and looked back with an enraged look in its eyes but Milotic was already inside the pool. He launched a massive beam of orange colored energy right into the water at Milotic's last known location and continued firing away trying to hit the water type.

"Gyarados stop! Don't waste your energy!" commanded Daisy.

Gyarados managed to hear his trainer's command, honed in its anger and stopped firing Hyper Beam attacks which had caused it to lightly pant.

"Go in after Milotic and use Dragon Tail!"

Gyarados roared before diving right into the large pool that was the Cerulean gym water battlefield, with his tail glowing purple.

Cynthia smiled a bit. "Twister."

This simple statement got Daisy's eyes to widen. Nothing happened for a moment before the water started churning and developed into a massive whirlpool with swirls of faint purple draconic energy. It was easy to see Gyarados' massive figure trapped in the center of the whirlpool as he thrashed around trying to break free.

"Attract then Blizzard."

Milotic instantly shot itself out of the water, winking at Gyarados and sending pink colored hearts at him. The attack hit dead center on Gyarados' head causing the massive sea serpent to become love struck and stop his thrashing as he gained hearts for eyes and let the whirlpool infused with Twister, swirl him around. Milotic then opened her mouth and launched a huge wave of thick frost and shards of ice mixed with turquoise colored freezing energy. The attack hit Gyarados dead on and Milotic continued to keep up her Blizzard attack not letting up as Gyarados just took the hits not able to hear Daisy's frantic chain of commands.

The ice type attack had also eventually caused the part of the huge pool to freeze as Gyarados became trapped in place. Despite the psychic barriers flaring up, stopping the attack from leaving the confines of the battlefield, everyone in the room could feel the temperature drop from the fierce attack.

A few moments later, the water-flying type dropped unconscious as his head hit the ice as he had swirls for eyes.

"Gyarados is unable to battle! The challenger wins the match!" said the dark blue haired woman.

"Gyarados, you like did a great job. Get a nice long rest." Said Daisy as she recalled her Pokémon.

"Awesome job Milotic." Cynthia happily said to her water type as she patted her head when she rose out of the water near her.

("Thank you.") Milotic replied before nuzzling her head against Cynthia's cheek a little.

"Take a nice long rest." Milotic nodded in response and let herself be absorbed by her Poké Ball, feeling just a bit tired from having to use Blizzard for quite a while but nonetheless, perfectly fine and her exhaustion would go away with a nap.

"You're like such an awesome trainer and so strong. I can see why you did so well in the Sinnoh League. Here is the Cascade badge." Said Daisy after walking over to Cynthia.

"Thank you." Said Cynthia as she took the blue tear-dropped shaped badge, much like her hair pins.

"Great battle Cynthia." Said Ash as he walked up to her, very impressed with how strong and well trainer Milotic was. It was one thing seeing them train but another to see them in a real battle, especially against a powerful Pokémon like Gyarados.

"Thanks Ash. I guess its your turn now. Better not lose." Cynthia said with a smirk as she walked to the bench Ash sat on.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Said Ash as he walked over to the trainer box.

"You will be facing my sister Lily for your battle." Said Daisy as she went to sit on a bench right beside Cynthia's while Lily went over to her side of the pool.

"Make sure to give me a good battle cutie." Said Lily with a wink causing Ash to blush a little, since he never had a girl wink to him like that.

Daisy could have sworn she had heard a faint growl coming from beside her and looked at Cynthia who seemed to have a blank expression. It made her confused as she could have sworn the growl came from her.

"Stop teasing the kid Lily and get serious."

"Don't spoil my fun Violet."

"Whatever. The same rules as the previous battles apply. Battle begin!" commanded Violet from the referee box.

"Let's go Seaking!" shouted Lily as the Goldfish Pokémon materialized in the water.

Ash noted how it looked quite healthy and a bit bigger then regular Seaking and its horn was a bit bigger signalling that it was a male since female Seaking's horns were usually smaller then the males.

Ash thought about who to send out. While Raijin would be the ideal choice, Audra never got a chance to battle in Brock's gym so he decided he would use her for this gym battle. "Let's go Audra!"

The Pidgeotto appeared flying a few meters above the water with a fierce cry.

The Sensational sisters were a bit confused at the choice but no one said a thing.

"Use Air Cutter." Said Ash making the first move.

Pidgeotto shrieked and flapped her white glowing wings, sending two streams of white crescent shaped blades of wind towards Seaking.

"Dive into the water and then use Water Pulse!"

Seaking instantly dove into the water causing Air Cutter to be fizzled out in the water. Seaking didn't appear for a few moments while Audra used her keen eyes to keep a careful lookout. Eventually, she saw a small ripple in the water at a specific point and instantly turned her attention there.

Not a moment later, Seaking burst out, sending a blue ball of water type energy towards Audra who managed to dodge the attack in time.

Ash analyzed the situation and new that this would be difficult. For one, it would be almost impossible to land almost any attack since Seaking could easily dive deep into the water to dodge. Although, Seaking had its movements in the water limited due to the middle part of the field being frozen. Seaking would have to swim around it. As those thoughts ran through his head, his attention turned to Seaking who was in the air a bit before he went back into the water after launching the water type attack. Ash smiled as he found a way to beat Seaking.

"Use Supersonic!"

Seaking followed Lily's command and let loose a powerful sound wave from his mouth.

"Dodge with Quick Attack."

Audra became surrounded by a thin veil of white energy before disappearing in a flash as she easily dodged the attack and began to make her way towards Seaking.

"Dive back into the water!" Lily quickly shouted.

Audra barely missed Seaking as he went back deep into the water as she began flying above the air.

"Stay a few meters above the ice." Ash commanded.

Audra listened and flew at above the ice.

"End this with Ice Beam!"

After a few short tense moments, Seaking burst out of the water directly behind Audra and launched three jagged arcs of ice energy towards the normal/flying type.

"Quick Attack to dodge and get close to Seaking!"

Audra reacted immediately and disappeared in a flash of white but the powerful and fast Ice Beam attack had managed to clip her wing, causing her to wince in pain. She flew much lower to the ice then Ash would have liked as Audra charged towards Seaking who was still in the air.

The water type was preparing to fire another Ice Beam before falling into the water, but out of her own sheer will and strength, Audra managed to close the distance between them very quickly.

"Steel Wing! Knock Seaking high into the air!"

Audra's wings became enveloped in silver energy, eventually taking a metallic appearance. Thanks to her weird angle from flying too low due to her wing being clipped by the Ice Beam, she managed to perfectly smack Seaking upward, sending the water type flying.

"Air Cutter into Quick Attack!"

Audra shrieked before launching two streams of white crescent shaped blades of wind towards the airborne Seaking. The attack hit its mark and did quite a bit of damage before Audra disappeared in a flash of white again and raced towards Seaking who began falling towards the water. Ash and Cynthia both had noticed the very small blue flames that had licked Audra's body for a second before disappearing which had also managed to burn off the small bit of ice on her left wing.

After Audra collided with Seaking, the water type was sent crashing into the psychic barriers before falling into the water and floating at the surface with swirls for eyes.

"Seaking is unable to battle! The challenger wins the match!"

Audra came over and landed on Ash's shoulder causing the man to wince a bit at the sharpness of her talons and her weight was quite a bit more compared to when she was a Pidgey but nonetheless happily stroked her neck. Audra cooed in delight although it was a bit weak, no doubt due to the battle.

"Great job Audra! I'm really proud of you." After a few more moments of petting he recalled her. "Take a nice long rest."

Ash then turned his attention to Lily who had also recalled her unconscious Seaking after praising the water type and walked over to his side of the trainer box. Cynthia got up as well and made her way to him before Lily did.

"Quite the battle Ash. Nice strategy to use Seaking's vulnerability while airborne to attack. Audra's sheer will to continue flying even while being hurt a bit by the Ice Beam was impressive."

"Thanks." Ash replied at the praise before.

"Here is the Cascade Badge Ash." Lily said as she handed him the same badge as Daisy had handed Cynthia.

"Hold just a minute!" came the angry female voice.

Everyone turned their heads towards the source and found a girl with dark orange hair tied into a sideways pony tail, wearing an orange tank-top and blue mid-thigh length jean shorts with red straps going over her shoulders, connecting to her shorts.

The girl walked over to Ash. "You are not getting that badge until you defeat me in a battle!"

"Misty?" the three sisters

Ash said nothing as he tried to remember where he saw her and within a second, he remembered. "You're the girl I defeated on my second day as a trainer!"

Misty turned red from embarrassment and anger upon learning that she lost to a complete newbie even after she had one year of training more then him. "I want a one on one match and if you win, then you get that badge!"

"You have no authority to do that. I know the gym leaders of every gym and the registered gym leaders and theses three," Ash pointed at Daisy, Violet and Lily standing side by side, "are the official gym leaders of the Cerulean City gym. And Misty Waterflower, which I assume is you, are only a gym leader in training. They gave me a badge so you have no power to demand that a badge not be handed. However, if you want a battle I will gladly give it."

Misty was now very angry. She saw both the blonde and Ash's battles and while she was very impressed with Cynthia's Milotic and her power, she was absolutely furious that Lily actually lost the battle with Seaking against a flying type Pokémon like Pidgeotto on a _water_ battlefield of all places. And now she had been completely shut down by the same crimson-eyed trainer…who she admits is very handsome, who defeated her before.

"What the hell are you doing here Misty?" questioned Violet, a bit angry at her little sister.

"Weren't you like going to be a water Pokémon master? What are you doing back here? Did you already become one in the span of a year?" questioned Daisy although her tone made it sound both mocking and innocent at the same time.

"I was doing that but I got worried you three weren't taking care of the gym so I decided to come back here! And what do I find, Lily losing to a Pidgeotto on a water battlefield of all places!"

"Misty we take care of the gym just fine. Stop acting like a raged brat." Said Lily not liking Misty's tone.

"Whatever. So, you going to battle or what?" said Misty as she turned to Ash.

He simply nodded and took the badge from Lily and walked back to his trainer box while Misty walked to hers. People like her is why he generally tended to avoid human contact but being a researcher and occasionally meeting new people, and now traveling with Cynthia mellowed him out quite a bit. Before when he would have felt nervous and a bit scared around an angry person like Misty, now he felt confident and even rage at the insult to Audra's strength.

"Don't bother referring, this will end quick!" said Misty, her well known short-temper getting the better of her causing her sisters and Cynthia to watch with a frown.

"Let's go Staryu!" shouted Misty as she launched the water-psychic type's Poké Ball into the air, causing the Pokémon to materialize into the water.

"Raijin let's go!"

The electric materialized onto the ice part of the water battlefield.

Misty growled at the sight of the Pokémon that beat her before and immediately went on the offensive. "Use Bubble Beam and then hit it with Gyro Ball!"

Staryu blasted itself out of the water and bent the top part of his body towards Raijin before launching a powerful stream of blue bubbles filled with water type energy.

"Thunder Shock!"

Raijin nodded and launched a thin bolt of electricity towards Staryu, easily ripping through the water type attack and making contact. It did a decent amount of damage and also managed to cause Staryu paralysis as faint blue sparks of electricity occasionally appeared on its body as it lay immobile on the water.

"Recall your Pokémon Misty. Its paralysed and Raijin can easily knock it out with one more attack."

"No! Get up Staryu and use Psywave!"

Staryu groaned in response as it tried to move its body but found itself unable too.

"That's enough Misty!" Daisy shouted in anger, far different from her normal soft and innocent tone. "I apologize for my sister's behavior. I hope you two stop by to battle us again some day but until then we will make sure to give Misty a stern talking to!"

"Please do so." Ash said as Raijin hopped on his shoulder and he and Cynthia left the gym, ignoring Misty's enraged shouts.

When they found themselves outside of the gym, both Ash and Cynthia let loose a sigh.

"Well that was…interesting." Said Cynthia finding the only word to describe their encounter with Misty.

"And a very anti-climactic battle. Guess anger makes you do stupid things."

"Let's get to the Pokémon center." Cynthia nodded to Ash and they began to make their way towards the red roofed building only a couple blocks away.

"So, what's our next stop? Saffron? You can earn the Marsh badge there although I would have to come back later since I know none of my Pokémon can even begin to give Sabrina a challenge at the moment" said Ash receiving an angry mumble from Raijin. "Don't worry Raijin. After some lots of hard training, we will be able to defeat her."

"No doubt. Anyways, we will skip Saffron for now and head straight to Vermillion since St. Anne is leaving in three weeks and it will take us a minimum of a week and a half to get there and battle to get another ticket. Plus, I always wanted to go on a cruise."

"Ok that settles it then. Our next stop is Vermillion City."

* * *

 **And that concludes chapter 3!**

 **If anyone wants to know how aura will work in this story, search up Aura Manipulation in google and you should see a superpower wiki on it. Read that if you want to know, or don't if you do not want to be spoiled.**

 **The Pokémon he catches will again be according two three factors. The plot, my preferences, and what you readers want. I chose Dratini since many people recommended it in the reviews since I had been deciding on which pseudo-legendary to give him but couldn't place my mind on a final choice.**

 **IMPORTANT QUESTIONS!**

 **Which Pokémon do you want Ash to catch, including the ones he already has? Let me know in reviews and keep in mind the limit and the fact that he will not be getting any legendary Pokémon.**

 **Which Pokémon do you want Cynthia to catch, including the ones she already has? Let me know in reviews and keep in mind the limit and the fact that she will not be getting any legendary Pokémon.**

 **Please review the story and let me know your thoughts about it.**

 **Have a nice day!**


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